to be the man who walked 1000 miles (to fall down at your door)
by Tarafina
Summary: After Bonnie sacrifices her life for his, a grieving Damon is offered the chance to save his favorite witch. Time travel. Thrown back to 2009, he has a fresh start ahead of him and only one goal; keep Bonnie Bennett safe and happy. Falling in love with her wasn't on the to-do list, but he was already half-way there, so why not finish?
1. life's a vitch, and then you die

**title**: to be the man who walked 1000 miles (to fall down at your door)  
**category**: vampire diaries (tv)  
**genre**: friendship/drama/romance  
**ship**: bonnie/damon ; side caroline/stefan  
**chapter rating**: high teen (graphic violence, character death)  
**overall rating**: nc-17/explicit (graphic sex; violence)  
**spoilers**: 6x18  
**word count**: 8,055  
**summary**: After Bonnie sacrifices her life for his, a grieving Damon is offered the chance to save his favorite witch. _Time travel_. Thrown back to 2009, he has a fresh start ahead of him and only one goal; keep Bonnie Bennett safe and happy. Falling in love with her wasn't on the to-do list, but he was already half-way there, so why not finish?

**_to be the man who walked 1000 miles (to fall down at your door)_**  
-novel-

* * *

**life's a _vitch_, and then you die**

* * *

**i**.

Bonnie was fuming, her arms crossed tightly over her chest and her foot tapping.

Damon kept glancing at her from the corner of his eyes, but refused to open that particular can of worms.

"So we have _six _loose _ripper _vampires with magical powers… That's what you're telling me?" she said, her voice eerily calm.

He nodded, swirling his glass around to stir the ice in his drink. "And one ripper mom who couldn't give two shits about her sons…" The smile he offered was completely empty, and was wiped away as quickly as it appeared. "And, since Stefan is chasing Caroline halfway across the country, that leaves us."

"Right. So you _lie _to me about keeping the ascendant safe, let out six of the most deadly vampires alive, not including the _one _person I desperately needed to _not _be here, and now that the shit has hit the fan, you want me to come in and just, _what_, clean it up for you?"

Damon's jaw ticked. "Not by yourself… Just… _Help _me."

Bonnie's chin rose abruptly as her narrowed eyes cut across him. "Help you? Like you were supposed to help me? Putting Kai in 1903 was supposed to make up for the _last _time you broke my trust, Damon. It hasn't even been a week and here we are again!" She tossed her hands up.

"Okay, I admit that a lot of this is on me…"

"A lot? _All _of it is on you. _You _wanted your mom out, so you brought Kai to see me. _You_ needed her to turn Stefan's switch. You didn't even try to do it yourself, which, let's face it, is really what it boiled down to anyway since it was _your _words, and not your mother's that got your brother back. But because you didn't even think to _try_, you tossed all the trust I had in you right out the window for the second time in _days _so that your mother, who you _barely _know could go back and retrieve the vampires you knew for a _fact _were Rippers." She waved her hands around. "Even ignoring the fact that they actually have witch powers, you still knew how dangerous they were. So _yes_, Damon, this is completely on you!"

"All right!" he exclaimed, his face twisted up. "I know I hurt you and I made a lot of mistakes, but I wasn't thinking clearly. I needed my _brother _back, Bonnie. And let's face it, with our history, I really didn't think I'd be enough to put a dent in flipping his switch. So yes, I went with the wild card, and yes, damn it, I used you and Kai to do it. I didn't know this was going to happen!"

"Because you never _think_! You're so impulsive that you only go with Plan A and you never come up with a Plan B or C!"

"That's what _you're _for. You're supposed to come up with those. You're supposed to be the long term while I'm the in-the-moment guy!" he defended.

"Well, maybe if you tried actually _talking _to me about these things before you do them—!"

"I'm talking to you _now_…" He walked toward her, searching her face. "Bonnie, please. I know I burned this bridge too many times already, and I know this is my fault, but I can't _do _this without you."

She huffed, turning her head away and glaring out the window.

He reached for her, hands settling on her upper arms and squeezing gently. "I will make this up to you. I promise. I just… I need your help now. And you can hate me later."

Bonnie closed her eyes, shaking her head minutely. When she opened her eyes, she looked up at him, his expression blank. "Fine. But after this, we're done." Pulling out of his hands, she started toward the door.

Damon's brow furrowed. He turned around, following her with his eyes. "Bonnie—"

"Meet me at Grams' in an hour. We'll come up with a game plan," she said, before walking out the boarding house, the door slamming sharply behind her.

Damon flinched, guilt curdling in his stomach. He set his mouth in a firm line and gave his head a shake before knocking back his bourbon. They would take care of this, and then he would fix him and Bonnie. She might be the most stubborn witch he knew, but he was the most stubborn vampire, and there was no way he was letting them end on this note.

* * *

**…**

* * *

"So, we're just going to… attack and hope for the best? I thought you had a Plan B, C, and D!" Damon complained.

Bonnie sighed, exasperated with him. "We're luring them to a neutral location—"

"_My _house," he corrected, tossing a hand up. "I happen to _like _that house. I don't want a supernatural war in my backyard. Why can't we have it somewhere else? Like… Dog-boy's manor or whatever."

"_Because_. Luring your mother to your house won't look as suspicious as getting her to go out to Tyler's. And the only one you'll be fighting is Lily." She paused. "Can you do that? Can you… _kill_ your mom?"

Damon stared down at her, mouth twisted up. "I'll do what I have to."

"Damon," she said quietly, lips pressed in a line. "If you can't do this, you need to tell me."

"I'll do it," he told her firmly.

She stared at him searchingly a long moment, and then nodded. "Okay."

"So, what happens next?" he wondered.

"I found a spell in my grimoire that I think will work in neutralizing at least the _powers _of the hybrids. All I'll need to do is get them to touch me and it'll activate. They're siphoners, even if they have their own power source, they'll want more. Think of it like blood; as Rippers, they'll _crave _my power. But, instead of absorbing my power, the spell will grab theirs and siphon it into _this_." She showed him a necklace, a pale blue stone at the center. "Once the magic aspect is out of the way, I can focus on putting them down as vampires, then _you_ can start staking people."

"Wait, wait, wait… You want to let these things get close enough to _touch _you?" He shook his head vehemently. "_No! _No way. That's witch suicide."

Rolling her eyes, she said, "This is our only option, Damon. If you have a better plan, then share it!"

"We get Alaric in on it. He starts taking these things out from afar, sharp-shooter style. He's got every gun you could think of."

"No, absolutely not," she argued, shaking her head. "We're not bringing Alaric in on this. He has Jo to think of. The _baby_. We can't risk his life!"

"Well, fine, so we ask to borrow the gun and _I'll _shoot them."

"As soon as you shoot one, they'll scatter, and then what?"

"Well, I don't _know_, Bonnie, but I know getting close enough for them to _kill _you is a bad idea," he shouted.

"We don't have time to argue about this," she reminded him. "Elena set up a make-shift medical tent; her and Jo have been saving and compelling who they can. But eventually, Lily and her hybrids are going to move beyond Mystic Falls. We can't let them get out there… They're impulsive and hungry and completely _reckless_. That's why they were put in 1903. So we need to stop arguing about this already. This is our plan, Damon." Standing from the couch, she slipped the chain of her necklace over her head; the stone falling to rest against her chest. "Are you in or out?"

He stared at her, grinding his teeth, and then gave a short, stiff nod. "Let's kill us some vitches."

* * *

**…**

* * *

Three hours later, Bonnie was regretting Plan B and rethinking the sharp-shooting from afar idea that Damon had pulled out of his ass. At the very least, she would have been less exhausted. There was also a small part of her, tiny as it was, that really just wanted to turn tail and run. She'd had far too many brushes with death, and this felt a whole lot like another one. Bonnie and Death had reached a point in their relationship where she would very much like to go from 'it's complicated' to 'divorced.'

But here she was, yet again, pitted against six of the most powerful beings alive. How was it she always got into these situations? Never mind, she knew exactly how. He was running around behind her, trading hit for hit, and insult for insult, with his mother.

At least they'd stopped throwing fireballs at them. Dodging those had been an obstacle course she was not at all prepared for. While she'd managed to redirect some, she was pretty sure her hair was singed from one that got all too close, and probably would have gotten even closer if Damon hadn't grabbed her around the waist and taken her out of harm's way, brief relief that it was before the next attack. The fire was one thing, but then they added wood to the equation, shattering porch chairs and sending pieces flying at them like stakes. Bonnie had a bleeding wound on her arm and head to show for it.

When the adrenaline wore off later, she was going to need a hot bath and a good cry. In the moment, however, there was nothing to do but attempt to survive. They sent a stake directly for Damon and, though she exploded it before it could hit, she knew the slivers had pierced his back anyway. She added 'picking those out of his back' to her long list of things to do post-battle, right alongside 'drink away the near-death terror with Damon's best bourbon.'

Soon enough, they were separated, with Damon's hands full fighting only Lily.

"Is that the best you've got? A hundred and ten years and you couldn't work on your technique a little?" Damon snarked somewhere behind her, despite his noticeable panting from the exertion of their brawl. "I'm disappointed, _mother_."

"Always such a sharp tongue, Damon. And so little backbone to support it," Lily returned.

The pained grunting that followed told Bonnie that he wasn't doing as well as he'd thought he would, but she couldn't focus on that now. Damon would persevere, he always did; she needed to focus on _her _opponents, all six of them.

Bonnie was tired, hurt, bleeding, and second-guessing her plan every few seconds. But finally, thinking they had the upper hand, they let the draw of her power lure them closer. The grass was still smoking as they circled around her eagerly. Having a well of their own power to keep them alive was fine, but they were siphoners by nature, they would want as much as they could get.

Hands reached for her, eager to get a taste of all that power. The expression on her face, one of sheer terror, was not as much of an exaggeration as she would have liked. She couldn't help but think of how it felt when Kai had siphoned from her, the tearing sensation inside of her as she felt her power being ripped out from the very core of her being, leaving her in fraying threads. But there was none of that now, thankfully. As soon as their hands touched her skin, the stone of her necklace began to glow, and instead of pain, she felt only pride. Their magical essence was being siphoned from them into the necklace, and it would keep siphoning it from them, until they were mere husks of what they were, killing them, slowly but surely.

As the vitches stumbled back, weakened, Bonnie raised her hands and hit them with a wave of aneurysms that sent them to their knees. She curled her fingers into claws and heard the audible snap of their bones; their screams carried on the wind, echoing howls of agony. It couldn't hurt to hurry up the process of their deaths. Without their powers and their slowly weakening life forces, they could do nothing but bend under the will of her power. All that was left now was for Damon to stake them.

"Damon," she shouted, turning her head slightly. When she received no answer, her chest tightened worriedly, and she turned a little more, her powers still keeping the vitches in place. What she found made her heart sink into her stomach. Damon knelt in front of his mother, his head hanging at an odd angle, eyes empty. A snapped neck. He could come back from that. A huff of relief left her, before she raised her eyes to meet Lily's enraged gaze.

"He warned me you would be the true enemy," Lily told her, lip curled faintly. "While I thought his infatuation with you might have blinded him, I felt it was only smart to have a contingency plan…" She stared at her searchingly. "You will release my friends, Miss Bennett, or I will lay Damon's heart at your feet."

Bonnie swallowed tightly. "He's your _son_," she exclaimed.

Lily's eyes fell as she gazed down at her eldest boy. She dragged a finger down the side of his face. "He was. _Once_. But my allegiance is with my new family now. While I would… _regret_ Damon's death, it would be survivable." She lifted her head then and peered at Bonnie. "I suppose the question is… would it be for you as well?" She reached down to press her fingers against Damon's chest, the skin and muscle giving under her strength, blood blooming on his shirt. "Have you ever held a heart in the palm of your hand, Miss Bennett? Never has something felt so _fragile _as when you're so easily capable of destroying it."

A wave of rage ricocheted through her and Bonnie released it on the vitches, mollified only slightly by their increased screams. "If you hurt him, I will kill every last one of them, and then I'll kill _you_," she vowed through gritted teeth.

Lily merely smiled at her. "You think that a threat? Were you to kill my family, what purpose would I have any longer? My death would be the only answer to theirs. So you see… you are the only one who will lose here. Either you give me my family and Damon lives, or I kill Damon, and I find peace with my family. While_ you_, my dear, you… have to go on without him." Cocking her head curiously, she arched one fine eyebrow. "What is your choice?"

Bonnie stared at her searchingly, hoping to find some modicum of regret or hesitation, but there was none. Just crystal blue eyes that resembled her son's in image alone. Bonnie's heart thumped hard in her chest and tears littered her eyes. With regret, she let her hands fall to her sides, the vitches released from her wave of pain.

Turning better to face Lily, she tipped her chin down. "Please. Let him go."

"The necklace first, my dear."

Swallowing thickly, Bonnie reached back to unclip the necklace and tossed it to the ground before Lily, who smiled at her show of insolence and crushed the stone beneath her heel. Immediately, Bonnie felt the power of the vitches return to them, and then a hand coiled around her ankle, sucking her powers from her. The tearing wasn't as agonizing as it had been with Kai, but the pain was still enough to steal her breath from her lungs, her eyes wide.

Lily looked her up and down a long moment, and then slowly pulled her hand from Damon's chest. She released him, letting him fall backwards to the grass, his legs tucked under him at a weird angle. She very carefully wiped her hand on her shirt, ridding it of her son's blood, smiling pleasantly all the while.

"I must thank you, Malachai… Your information was far more important than I had first anticipated," he said, her musical voice lilting.

Kai, standing off to the side, stared down at Damon's body, a grimace on his face. He glanced to Lily then and shrugged. "I try to be of service."

Bonnie glared at him, her lips trembling with her anger. Never had she hated a person so much in her life, and the desire to tear his flesh from his bones _burned _inside her.

"_Oh_." Lily tisked. "It seems you have deeply offended Miss Bennett. An odd thing that, considering it was she who left you to rot in the other world."

Kai glanced at Bonnie, his lips pursed, and kicked at the ground. "She had her reasons," he muttered. "Can't say I blame her. An eye for an eye, I guess."

"Yes. It would seem the night for that." Lily stared at Bonnie, waiting for her to meet her eyes once more. "You understand, Miss Bennett, that I cannot let you live."

Bonnie raised her chin, even as it quivered, pain ricocheting through her. "Is this the part where I beg for my life? Because I have to tell you… I've been killed by better."

Lily's mouth curled up at the corners, amused by her. "I imagine you have. An accomplished witch like you." She walked toward her, unhurried. "Malachai sung your praises when he was warning me that you would be a threat. I did not take him seriously, I'm afraid. Not at first. But then I remembered Damon… He didn't speak of you often, but then, I suppose speaking of another woman with your lover is frowned upon even in this day and age. Still, I know he respected you, and for Damon, that says much."

"He won't let you get away with this," she choked out. "When he wakes up—"

"Which do you think he will prioritize?" Lily interrupted curiously. "Your death or the lives of those left in town… I ask because my friends clearly need to replenish themselves after your attack and Mystic Falls is so… _rich _with fresh blood." She put a hand to her ear and inhaled deeply, letting it out on a content sigh. "I can almost hear it rushing in their veins."

Bonnie's eyes narrowed, her lip curled in a snarl. "Either way, he'll kill you. And you'll deserve every second of it."

Lily rushed forward, her hand gripped around Bonnie's throat. Leaning in, her lips brushing Bonnie's ear, she asked, "Do you think he knew…? Do you wonder if he noticed how your eyes lingered on him, or heard how your heart sped up in his presence? Did he have any idea of the depth of your love for him, Bonnie?"

Her breath caught; a sharp pain, that had nothing to do with her magic, echoed in her chest.

"Better, do you think he loved you back?" She stroked her thumb down the column of Bonnie's neck. "If I told you yes, would this hurt any less?"

Bonnie's eyes raised, but there was no chance to reply, before Lily twisted her hand, and Bonnie's neck cracked beneath it, snapped like a fragile twig in a hurricane.

"_No!_" Kai shouted, lurching forward. But Bonnie's lifeless body fell to the ground all the same, a broken heap. He let out a shuddering breath before he whipped his head toward Lily. "You _promised!_"

Lily laughed musically. "Oh Malachai…" She cupped his cheek with one hand. "You poor, simple boy…" She thrust her free hand through his stomach and right out the other end. "It truly is too bad that your brother redeemed some small part of your humanity when you merged. I think you would have been a beautiful addition to my family otherwise."

Kai stared up at her, his eyes wide and blood dribbling from his mouth.

Pulling her hand from his stomach, she threw him away from her, tossed like garbage to lay at the foot of a tree, slumped and discarded.

Walking to her family, she gathered them up, tisking as they still groaned and whined in pain. She helped them to their feet before taking two hands in hers, the others following suit. "Come… I have just the remedy for all that ails you." Her teeth flashed before she ran forward, taking her people with her.

Kai stared out over the field, pain radiating through him. He stared at the two slumped bodies in the distance and stretched out a hand. "_Modus_."

Bonnie's crumpled body came to him, hovering a few inches off the ground, her hands dragging along the grass at her sides. She fell gently at the end of his feet, and he stared at her, eyes half-closed, a dribble of blood drying on her cheek.

"Probably too late to say sorry, huh?" he asked, choking out a humorless laugh. "For the record…" He tipped his head back against the tree and stared down at her, eyes damp with unshed tears. "_I am_."

* * *

**…**

* * *

Damon startled back to life, eyes shot wide. The twinge in his neck told him it'd been unceremoniously snapped. Lungs squeezing painfully, he sucked air in on a cracked gasp; a gurgle of blood foamed at his lips before it spattered his chin on a cough. Blurry eyes darted around as he gave a pained groan, slivers of wood still piercing his back and the burn of vervain singing strong in his veins. His mother got him good with that one; he'd give her that. He felt like he'd been run over, twice, and left for dead. Not a completely inaccurate description, actually.

His mother, devil woman that she was, was a far better opponent than he'd expected. And with her little vitch pack on her side, they hadn't had much trouble kicking his ass. More Lily than the others; last he remembered, the vitches were getting their asses handed to them by his little wi—

He sat up abruptly, stabbing pain echoing in every inch of him. His eyes scanned the scorched backyard of the boarding house. Fire. He remembered them volleying fireballs around in an effort show off. Like he hadn't seen Bonnie pull off better on her worst day. Speaking of… Where was she? The last thing he remembered was his mother sticking him with his own vervain needle, because as much as he'd said he could take her out, he hadn't been so sure he could actually kill her, and that was his back-up plan. Fat lot of good that did him. He was kneeling at her feet then, choking and struggling to get free, vaguely listening to the pained screaming of the vitches bowing under Bonnie's power. And then— _nothing_.

"Bonnie?" he choked, giving his head a shake when his vision blurred. Taking a deep breath through his nose, he turned himself over onto his knees and pushed up. Swaying, he raised his hands and pressed the heels against his eyes. His knees shook as he stood, threatening to give out on him, but he pushed forward, stumbling across the blackened grass, trying to stretch his hearing for a heartbeat he was all too familiar with. He could remember falling asleep to it, every night in the prison world, a funny little comfort he'd come to miss after they were separated. She'd fallen asleep on his couch a few times, and he'd offered up one of the spare rooms when she came home, but there were too many people, too many unknown factors (his mother, namely) for her to feel comfortable there. He couldn't find her heartbeat now; just the low thrum of some other human and the quickened heartbeat of various animals in the woods.

Taking a deep breath, he tilted his head back and shouted with all he had, "_Bonnie!?_"

It took a moment, of him waiting, and waiting, his brow furrowed and worry skittering down his spine. What if his mother took her? Or the vitches got one over on her while he was down for the count. What if her powers sucked her dry and left her for dead? They weren't always kind to her; or maybe it was her that was unkind to them. Regardless, her magic was as inconvenient as it was convenient, especially when it came to keeping his bossy little friend alive. He was just opening his mouth to shout her name again, though he wasn't sure it would do anything good, when— "Over here."

But it wasn't Bonnie's voice he was hearing.

His eyes narrowed as his head swung abruptly to the left, and he spotted the vague outline of someone. He raced toward it, his abilities hindered both by vervain and his injuries. A body was slumped on the ground, a few feet short of a tree, laying at the feet of Kai Parker. Damon hit his knees in front of Bonnie and reached for her shoulder. "Bonnie? Hey… Talk to me…" Her body was limp, head hanging at a funny angle, and he choked. He pulled her up so she was leaning into his arms. "_Bonnie_," he tried against, staring down at her still face searchingly. He didn't need sensitive hearing to know her heart had long gone still. Her skin was cold where it usually ran warm, and her complexion was off, oddly pale.

"It was your mom," Kai piped up, offering a faint, humorless smile. "She had _you_, originally, but… You know Bon-Bon. Martyr complex, that's what you called it, right? Always so quick to sacrifice herself."

Damon bared his blood-stained teeth at him, lip curled in a snarl. "Shut up."

Kai held up one hand, shrugging. "Hey, I'm just supplying a little context. I mean, you were down for the count for the big finale. Bon-Bon really knocked it out of the park." He tipped his head, rolling his eyes, before amending, "Well, _almost_. Clearly she didn't get the homerun. Close though, I'd definitely give her an A for effort. But that mom of yours…" He whistled. "She's a real piece of work, huh? She knew exactly how to play our witch. Just had to hit the right cord, and Bonnie was putty in her hands… The cord was _you_, in case you weren't catching my drift. Mama Salvatore threatened to tear your heart out herself and, well… Bonnie stopped torturing all the little vampire witches to save you. Long story short, your mom killed her. But, hey, at least she kept her word and left _you _alive, right?"

Damon shook his head faintly, staring down at Bonnie, her eyes half-closed, dried blood staining her cheek from a cut running the length of her scalp. She was so… _quiet_. In all the time he'd known her, quiet was not something she knew how to be. She was a chatterbox, filling up any available silence with _noise_. It didn't matter where they were or what was going on, she always had something to say, questions to ask, complaints to raise. And he'd been all too quick to tell her to shut up, stop questioning him, quit pointing out problems, but now… Now he missed it. He missed the sound of her voice, even when it was angry or disappointed or accusing. He would take all three now.

She'd been mad at him. Not just pissed, but _enraged _with him for betraying her. He'd tried to explain, to make excuses, but she refused to hear any of it. And he'd been upset, that she wouldn't understand, that she wouldn't just forgive him. But she'd been right. He'd made a careless decision in the moment, too impulsive to think of the long-term ramifications, figuring he would deal with it when it happened. But his mistake cost her life, and he had no idea what to do with that. His heart, dead as it had been for a century and a half, squeezed tightly in his chest, all too eager to shatter into tiny, infinitesimal pieces.

Stretching his fingers over her cheek, he tucked a stray strand of hair back, his thumb rubbing at dried blood, trying to get it off her. It was wrong. All wrong. If life were a movie, she would be the heroine, the underdog who pulled an ace from her sleeve and walked away victorious despite the odds stacked against her. But it never went that way for her. No matter how hard she tried. No matter how many people she saved. No matter how many times she risked her own life for everybody else. She was always the one that paid for it in the end. The unsung hero that lost her life in every fray. And he was sick of it. He was sick and tired of losing her.

Had he ever really had her? he wondered. In all that time, from the very beginning, he'd been nothing but a thorn in her side; the embodiment of terror; her nightmares come to life. Slowly, but surely, he'd changed that, but theirs was a relationship that was always mired in conflict. He was too big-headed, too arrogant, and she was too virtuous, too judgmental, for them to meet on even ground. Until they died, holding hands no less. And he could hate the prison world for a long list of reasons— he could hate the loneliness and the depression and the constant guilt that chewed away at his insides— but he couldn't hate it for giving him her. For letting him have those four months with her where it wasn't easy, but it was theirs.

Damon had avoided learning too many life lessons, but Bonnie had a way of drilling them into his head, whether he wanted to hear them or not. Hope was a big one. And she'd been that for him. He'd never understood what _kind_ of hope, where it was leading, until this very moment. He was a cynical person by nature; expect the worst and it couldn't surprise or hurt him. But somehow, despite losing her more times than he could count, despite knowing that her life always seemed to be stuck in a looping countdown to the next sacrifice; he'd thought, for one brief moment, that maybe this time she would live. Maybe this time she would spend that rest of her witchy little life annoying him. The righteous voice in his ear; the stabilizing hand tucked in his; the yin to his yang; light to his dark; hope to his hopeless. But here they were again. He could almost laugh at the predictability of it all. Instead, he found himself choking on the burn of bile climbing his throat.

His brow furrowed as he stared at her, memorizing her face, from the arch of her eyebrows to the fan of her eyelashes to the length of her nose to the faint upturn of her lips to that stubborn little chin of hers, always raised in defiance. He could just hear her, shouting _I told you so_'s at him, exasperated and angry, tired of always having to clean up their messes. It always ended up here; they needed her help and she paid the ultimate price.

_For him_.

She could have saved the whole town, saved everyone, if she'd just let his mother finish him off while she destroyed the hybrid vampire-witches. But she hadn't. She'd let herself be killed, let the magical Rippers walk free so he wouldn't die. He closed his eyes, one and two and three tears spilling unchecked. He bent down, pressing his forehead to hers, smooth and cool to the touch.

What a stupid, self-sacrificing little witch. He wanted to shake her. Shake sense back into her head; justice back into the world; air back into her lungs. He wanted her to yell and scold and shout at him for all of his mistakes, all of his shortcomings, all of the ways he failed her. And there were many. God, there were so _fucking_ many…

His breath hitched in his throat as he gathered her closer, burying a hand in her hair, fingers shaking at the nape of her neck. "I'm sorry," he choked out, voice wavering. "You were right. Damn it, _Bonnie_. You were right. I was stupid and reckless and I never should've— I never… It's my fault… It's on me…"

He swallowed tightly, squeezing his arms around her. She was so small and frail; he'd never noticed that before. How tiny she was. She'd always taken up so much space with her voice and her power and her righteousness.

He gritted his teeth. "Why do you always have to be so predictable? Why do you always have to throw your life away? And for what? Huh? _Me?_" He laughed, his face twisting up in anger. "_Stupid_. You were supposed to be the smart one. The only one in this whole damn town. Instead, you're just as bad as me. Impulsive and reckless and always putting your life on the line… Like anybody else even _matters_."

His voice broke on him then, leaving him hoarse, and he just held her, rocking her in his arms; his tiny, broken bird. It took him a few minutes to gather himself before he pressed a kiss to one closed eye, and then he surveyed her, reaching an arm under her legs. He had no idea where he would take her, what he would do with her, but he couldn't just leave her there.

"It could be worse, you know?" Kai said, drawing his eyes.

Damon glared at him, brow knotted tightly. "I've got my arms full of dead witch. _Please_, tell me how that could be worse."

Kai stared up at him. "Well, you could be the reason your mom knew how to play her…" He half-smiled, mouth turned up on one side, and Damon suddenly realized the scent of blood on the air wasn't just from Bonnie or him. The stink of death, the slowing heartbeat thudding away, it was _Kai_. He took a closer look at the witch in front of him, the front of his shirt soaked in blood, a hand pressed to his weeping gut. "See, I bartered my way home on the Mama Salvatore Express. Oh, she wasn't eager to bring me along. She was there for her people, not me. But I had information, a way to make sure you and your little friends didn't get in her way..."

Damon felt rage stirring up in his gut, his fingers stretching and then squeezing around Bonnie, eager and willing to tear Kai's head from his shoulders.

Kai rolled his eyes; unaware, or uncaring, of Damon's quickly building anger. "She was going to go for Elena, make the obvious choice, you know? Hide her, use her a leverage to keep you in line. But I told her there was someone else; that even if she got rid of Elena, there was a bigger threat she needed to think of… So she let me come, as long as I played nice, and I have to tell you… It seemed ideal at first. I'd get to come home and then I'd leave them to their little reign of terror and get back to leading my coven. But your mom's _smart_. Can't say the same for her sons; you must take after your father..."

At Damon's blank face, he continued, "She made sure one of her little hybrid always kept me close. Apparently siphoning vampire-witch trumps regular siphoning witch. Who knew? Needless to say, she kept me on a tight leash and the only way I kept myself alive was giving up Bonnie. But, in my defense, I was pretty sure little Bon-Bon could handle herself… _Clearly,_ I underestimated how much she actually cared about you. Oh, I knew she'd try to save you, but I figured her martyr complex would lean toward the _town, _not one vampire." He scoffed. "What a waste."

Damon's eyes narrowed, his teeth gritted as he asked, "Is there a _point_ to this? Because all I'm hearing is reasons to _kill _you, painfully and slowly, after I put _Mother Dearest_ and her new 'family' in the ground."

"Now, now, is that anyway to talk to someone who can give you another chance to change things?" he mocked.

Damon blinked, mouth ajar.

Kai smirked. "See? That's better. I like it when you're in _awe_. Makes me feel powerful."

"Explain. _Quickly._ Before I start feeding you your internal organs," Damon snarled.

"First of all, they're already pretty stirred up. In fact, if I move by finger just right, I'm pretty sure that's my spleen…" He laughed, but frowned suddenly. "Then again, I failed biology, twice, so…" At Damon's unamused expression, Kai took a deep breath and let it out on a long-suffering sigh. "Fine, so let's say that I might know a nifty little way for you to do the impossible."

"Which is?"

He grinned slowly. "Reverse time. Save Bon-Bon. Make it _all _better…"

Suspicious, Damon looked him over. "Why? Why help me? What's in it for you?"

"Well, in case you haven't noticed, I'm _dying_." He tipped his chin down to his stomach wound. "Now, siphon-vitch took a pretty good bite out of my magic and this whole bleeding out thing is definitely _not _helping, but I do know that I have _just_ enough juice left for one _whopper _of a fix-it… So either I heal _myself_ and go on walking the earth to annoy and terrorize a little longer, or I do the _'right' _thing and send you back to save little Bon-Bon here."

He stared at Damon searchingly. "I know what you're thinking. Why the hell would this handsome devil choose Bonnie over himself? Well, the answer's simple. _Guilt_. I'm swamped with it. I blame Luke for it, really. It's annoying, and choking, and apparently all those things I heard about regretting most of your choices on your deathbed, yeah, definitely true." He nodded, offering a shaky half-smile. "Not fun, just so you know. Anyway, the point is… I can change it. So either I spend the rest of my life feeling like _this_, which, _not _ideal. Or I take a page out of Bon-Bon's book, and _do _something about it. So? Up for a little experimental time travel?"

Damon stared at him a long moment, and then turned his eyes down toward Bonnie. Quiet, still, _lifeless _Bonnie. There was no guarantee it would work, and signing on with Kai had done nothing good for him so far, but… It was _Bonnie_.

His expression hardened before he looked up, stared Kai straight in the eyes, and said, "_Do it_."

With a breathless laugh, Kai nodded. "That's what I like to hear." He held out his bloody hand, which Damon took. "Just FYI, this is going to hurt like a bitch."

He frowned. "Wha—?"

Damon's voice broke off on a cry of pain, and then it all went _dark_.

Nothingness felt a lot like being splintered into tiny pieces and then shoved back together in the wrong order. Only to be broken up again to go through the whole process, over and over, until the agony was almost too much to bear. Time lost meaning. Was it seconds or minutes or years that he spent in that nothingness? He couldn't tell. All he knew was that the pain was absolute and the end was unknown.

Maybe Kai had screwed up. Or maybe this was his revenge, getting a gullible Damon to play along, making choices on blind hope that led only to an eternity of pain. He wouldn't put it past him. Then again, maybe Kai hadn't had as much power left as he thought, and part way through, he'd just died. _Fzzt_. Dead as a doorknob. The stink of death had been thick on him; he hadn't had much left in the tank. Maybe he used up all of his power getting Damon this far, and there was nothing left to finish the job.

And maybe he deserved it. Maybe this was Damon's penance for all the lives he stole. All the people he'd hurt. All the times he should have kept her safe and didn't. He owed her. Beyond anyone or anything, he'd owed Bonnie. The idea that it was his fault. That she might still be there if he'd just come up with a different way; if he hadn't handed his mother, who he barely knew, the one thing he knew would lead to breaking Bonnie's trust. That would inevitably lead to her death. He couldn't have known it would end there, but with her track record, he should have prepared for it. In fact, if he somehow, miraculously, actually made it through whatever this was, he was going to dress his little witch in bubble-wrap and never let her near anything deadly or even pointy for the foreseeable future. She'd aneurysm him into the next lifetime for sure if he pulled that. It was an oddly comforting thought.

And with that, the pain broke.

Instead, a coolness washed over him, like rain drops soothing his burning skin, pouring over him until the fire in his veins and the tearing of his muscles faded away to nothing. His chest rose and fell, air sucked into his lungs, and slowly, he opened his eyes, staring up at a blue sky, spattered with white, fluffy clouds. He was in the woods; he could feel twigs and leaves beneath him, dirt and rocks under his fingers, and hear the skittering heartbeat of nearby animals.

His mouth opened, lips peeling apart slowly, and he coughed her name, "_Bonnie_." Like he thought she'd be there, in front of him, alive and well.

Sitting up slowly, he blinked, casting his eyes around in confusion. The pain of before was gone; no more splinters in his back or vervain in his system. He felt good. Better than he had in a while. Pushing up to his feet, he readjusted his jacket, and took another look around. He knew exactly where he was, his mouth tilting with vague amusement. The woods where he'd first bit her, enraged with Emily and her betrayal.

Dusting himself off, he started walking, making his way toward the road. As he stepped onto the highway, it hit him that he had no idea what was going on, and trusting Kai suddenly felt like the dumbest move possible. He felt a surge of panic build up inside him and knew that he needed to find her. She would know what to do. He started running, racing toward Sheila Bennett's old house, where Bonnie had holed up after returning from the prison world, taking comfort in her Grams' things.

It wasn't until he was standing across the street from Sheila's that he realized he had no idea how far back Kai had sent him, only that he would have enough time to save Bonnie. He expected hours, maybe even just minutes before his mother finished her off. Like Kai said, he only had so much juice left in him, so a day was probably stretching himself. But as he stood across the road and watched Bonnie Bennett walk down the porch stairs of Sheila's house, he felt his breath catch.

She was… _young_. Bright and innocent. Her hair long and her face the picture of sweet and hopeful. And he knew, without a doubt, that this was before he came into her life. This was when she was just a regular teenage girl, before the terror and chaos of the magical world suddenly infiltrated every single corner of her life. He watched her, smiling warmly back at her Grams, her books hugged to her chest as she made her way to her car.

"You be careful, baby. Drive safely."

"I will, Grams. Promise."

"All right, honey. You come see me after school. I want to hear all about your first day."

Bonnie smiled. "Every detail." She climbed into her car then, putting her books behind her on the backseat, and then paused, looking out the back window, directly at him.

And Damon stared back, wondering if, somehow, despite everything, she might recognize him. Might jump out of her car and race across the street, leap into his arms like she had just a week ago. Reunited again. He wanted it. _Badly_. He wanted her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck and her joyful laugh against his ear. He wanted _his _Bon-Bon. But all she did was gaze at him, her brow furrowed thoughtfully, and then her eyes fell and her cheeks flushed, and she turned herself around, hands reaching for the steering wheel.

It took her a minute of readjusting her seat and the mirror and pulling on her seatbelt, before she was pulling out of the driveway and turning to go down the street. Time seemed to slow down as she passed by him, helpless to her curiosity as she turned her head to see him. And he shouldn't have, he should have turned on his heel and walked away, but he raised his hand and he wiggled his fingers at her, mouth tipped up at the corners.

Bonnie stared at him, brow furrowed, but raised her hand just a little to wave back. And if his heart could still beat, it would have skipped. It felt like only seconds ago that he was holding her lifeless body in his arms, but now, here she was. _Alive_.

He watched her car as it took off down the street, pausing at a yield sign before turning and leaving his sight completely.

She was okay. Young and untouched by the worst of this world. A little voice in the back of his head said that he should leave, run away, let her be. But another part said that he should stay. That he knew so much, he could _change _it. He could make it so that she didn't lose Sheila or her dad; that her mother was never turned, by him no less; that they were prepared in advance for Klaus and his screwed up family; that Silas was never raised; the counsel was never triggered into action; Jeremy Gilbert wasn't resurrected once, twice, or however many times he felt like getting killed this time around; that Bonnie never went near Expression or burnt herself out; that she never _died_.

He could change it all.

It was risky, and there was no guarantee that it would all turn out perfectly. In fact, he could make it worse. His brother wouldn't trust him in this timeline, not without a hell of a lot of proof that he'd changed. Elena wasn't his anymore. She wasn't anybody's; still grieving her parents and completely unaware of the two brothers that would infiltrate her life and turn it upside down. But, for the first time in a long time, the idea of not having her wasn't devastating. It hurt. He'd tried so hard and the struggle to be together had been long and painful. But maybe it was better this way. Maybe she was better off without him. And maybe… Maybe he could still be happy, just not the way he'd first thought.

With that in mind, Damon crossed the street, hands tucked into the pockets of his leather jacket.

He climbed the stairs of Sheila Bennett's porch and raised a hand to knock, amused more than anything when she swung the door open before he could touch it.

"What the hell are you doing on my porch, Salvatore?"

"Good to see you too, Sheila. I hope you don't mind house visits; I have a feeling you'll be seeing a lot of me in future."

Crossing her arms over her chest, she raised an eyebrow and scoffed at him. "What do you want, Damon?"

He took a deep breath, and when he let it out, he half-smiled. Meeting her eyes seriously, he said, "I want to save your granddaughter's life."

Expression severe, she stared at him, good and long. And then she stepped out onto the porch. "_Explain_."

He nodded, making his way over to sit on the porch rail. "It's a long story."

"I've got time. And I _know _you do."

His mouth twitched. "Two words… _Prison world_. I guess you could say, it all really started there…"

[**tbc**]

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**author's note**: _this idea has been bothering me for a while now, and i thought writing a short oneshot on it would get it out of my system, but nope. i just really love the idea of a better shaped damon going back and deciding to right as many wrongs as he can and keep bonnie from having to go through so much of what she did. also there were a few awesome questions raised by reviewers on the oneshot about the how's and why's and what if's, so now i feel obligated to expand on it, especially since i've been building it up in my head anyway. :)_

_so, i hope you enjoyed it! thank you for reading! please leave a review; they're my lifeblood!_

**\- lee | fina**


	2. what is, was, and should never be

**ship**: bonnie/damon ; side caroline/stefan  
**chapter rating**: pg-13/teen  
**word count**: 7,617

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**what is, was, and should never be**

* * *

**ii**.

"Two words… _Prison world_. I guess you could say it all really started there…" He paused then, turning his eyes off thoughtfully. "Ah, wait, you know what? We need one other person for this."

Sheila frowned at him, brow raised skeptically. "Oh do we?"

"Yeah. See, if Bon-Bon is going where I _think _she's going, then it's going to set off a whole chain of events that—" He shook his head dismissively. "It's just easier this way, and I don't want to have to explain this twice, so…" Pulling his phone from the pocket of his jacket, he paused, noticing that it was an older version of the one he'd been using in his time. Shrugging, he hit one on his speed dial before raising it to his ear.

It rang three times before a familiar voice picked up. "Who's this?"

Damon grinned. "Let me guess, you're on your way to Mystic Falls High right now. I hope you packed a furry little lunch; wouldn't want to start chowing on freshman. Someone might raise a stink."

There was a heavy pause before, "_Damon?_"

"_Brother_," he greeted. "Listen, I need you to do a little u-ey. You know where Sheila Bennett lives?"

"What are you doing at a witch's house? A _Bennett_, no less."

"See, if you were here, I could answer that, but since you're not…" Damon trailed off.

A long, exasperated sigh answered him. "Fine. I'm on my way. And Damon…? Don't hurt anybody."

Rolling his eyes at his brother's predictability, Damon replied, "Hurry up. I'm feeling _peckish_." Flipping his phone closed, he tucked it back in his jacket. "He's on his way."

"And what, exactly, is threatening my grandbaby so much that I need the help of _two _vampires?" Sheila demanded, raising an imperious eyebrow at him. "I don't know if it's escaped your shot attention, but Bennetts take care of themselves just fine. No interference by your kind needed."

Taking a seat in the cushioned, wicker chair across from her, he crossed his legs at the ankle. "To answer your question, _many _things are targeting her. But, with a little help, I can make sure none of that happens."

Shaking her head, she hummed. "What I don't understand is why you care at all. You don't even know Bonnie."

He smirked then. "Well, see, that's where you're wrong."

His amusement fled quickly as aneurysms started bursting in his brain, causing him to cry out, his hands reaching pointlessly for his head. "Stop! _Stop!_"

Sheila held on a few more seconds to further drive her point home before eventually ending her assault and sitting back in her chair, eyeing him with her lip curled in distaste. "I don't like games, Damon. And I especially don't like vampires acting superior to me. You may be older, but I've dealt with worse."

Gritting his teeth, he snarled at her. "For the record, that little parlour trick is one your granddaughter is particular to, and she does it with a lot more _flair_."

Sheila's eyes narrowed. "I'm losing my patience with you. I only hinted at Bonnie's true power recently, and she'd rather believe me a drunk than think herself a powerful witch."

Rubbing his temples, he muttered, "Well, maybe if you hadn't kept it from her for seventeen years…"

"I was _trying_ to keep her safe. And I won't take lessons on that from _you_."

Damon eyed her, frowning.

"That's right," she said, "I know all about how you were supposed to keep this family safe, watch over it like some kind of _deranged_ guardian angel. But you couldn't even manage that. Did you even _try_, Damon? Or was 'man of his word' just too difficult a title for you to live up to?"

His lip curled. "I was a little _busy_. But I'm here now, doesn't _that _count?"

"Did you want an honest answer to that?" she scoffed.

With a snort, he admitted, "Probably not."

A car pulled up in front then, drawing their attention, and Stefan climbed from the driver's seat, eyeing the situation suspiciously before he walked up the lawn. "All right. I'm here." He tossed his hands out and braced his feet apart, sighing. "She hasn't killed you yet, so I assume you have a good reason for being here..."

"Only the _best _reason." Damon looked between them and said, "So let's say that, _hypothetically_, time travel were an actual thing. And then let's also say that I _did _the hypothetical thing…"

"Impossible," Sheila muttered. "You couldn't have."

"Oh, but I did." He wiggled his eyebrows at her. "Kai Parker. Ring any bells?"

Sheila's hands gripped the arms of her chair tightly, her knuckles taking on a white pallor.

Damon nodded. "Yeah, so, like I said, prison world. Bonnie and I got sent there after we, well, _died_." He waved a hand. "It's a long story. The short of it is that Kai got out, merged with his brother Luke, we let my crazy ripper mother out of a 1903 prison world, she let out some even crazier ripper vampire/witch hybrids who terrorized the town, yadda yadda yadda, they killed Bonnie, and then Kai sent me back to save her." He paused, frowning. "You know, when I say it like that, it kind of sounds like the Terminator, except there's a lot less, you know, robots and terrible accents."

"Our mother, vampire/witch hybrids, Damon, what are you _talking_ about?" Stefan demanded, climbing the porch stairs, his brows furrowed.

"Look, it's a really lengthy story. I know I said it started with the prison world, but to cover everything, I mean…" He tapped his fingers on the arms of the chair. "Okay." He took a deep breath. "So it's 2009, right?"

Stefan nodded.

"Right, then it wasn't so long ago that Elena's parents died, drove off Wickery Bridge, and _you_ saved her." He looked up at his brother. "You were hunting poor little bunny rabbits in the woods, heard the crash, and then hopped in to play saviour… The only one you got out was Elena, which I'm sure was a shock since she looks just like Katherine." He stared at his brother searchingly. "How am I doing so far?"

Inhaling deeply, he gave a short nod.

"Okay, so, cue today. You're going to go to the school, catch Elena's interest, and convince yourself you just want to know why she looks like Katherine. Well, problem solved. She's a doppelganger. It all starts way back when with a couple of asshole brothers that fell in love with some girl, Tatiana Petrova. I'll come back to it, because that basket of crazy will be important later." He waved dismissively. "The point is _yes_, she's a doppelganger, and so was Katherine. Who is still very much alive and not in the tomb. _Bitch_."

Stefan blinked rapidly, trying to take it all in. "I… don't know what to say."

"How does this affect Bonnie?" Sheila wondered.

"_Because_. Bonnie is sacrificial to an _insane _degree. She's one of Elena's best friends and with Elena being a doppelgänger, she tends to be a key in a lot of holes." His mouth twisted up. "That sounded dirtier than I meant it to. In any case, let's just say that Elena's the reason that a lot of really awful people come here, and Bonnie's the reason they don't end up killing us. Well, part of the reason, I like to think I help out _sometime_s." He rolled his eyes. "See, Bonnie ends up putting her life on the line… a lot. The first time she dies— fake dies, I guess— it's to throw Klaus off. There's some fancy witch-work to thank for that. Then she put her life on the line trying to actually _kill _Klaus, but his brother betrayed us and saved his ass. Then Abby came back, shared her 'woe is me, sorry I abandoned you' story and _she _gets turned into a vampire. Uh, well, I should probably take responsibility for that one. But, it's a long story..."

Sheila sighed irritably. "You have a lot of those."

"Yes, well, if I had a pensieve this would all go a _lot _quicker," he snapped.

Sheila eyed him thoughtfully. "I don't have one of those, but I do know a spell."

"And what kind of ramifications might this spell have?" he wondered, eyes narrowed.

"You want us to know about this future, I do this and we will… Everything you saw, everything you did, every life you _took_ or saved… we could see it all."

Damon leaned back in his chair thoughtfully. "So if you saw it… you would _believe _me."

"Can't get around a spell like that. We'd be able to see the very heart of you... If you _have_ one."

He pursed his lips, and then eyed his brother. "What about you? Do you believe me?"

"I… have no idea. Honestly." Stefan dragged a hand down his face. "Look, what you're saying, it's… huge. And, you don't have the best track record."

Damon offered a faint, humorless smile. "Not sure my record gets much better, but, uh… We were in a better place, in the future."

Stefan stared him in the eye, brows furrowed with the shadow of skepticism.

Sighing, Damon turned to Sheila. "So let's say we do this little spell… You'll help me after?"

"You still haven't said what I should be helping you _with_."

"Bonnie," he stressed. "She's sacrificed herself too many times. She's been _used _too many times. If I can change that, if I can do something to stop everything that happened the first time… I want to."

Sheila peered at him, her keen eyes seeming to look right through him. "Just what kind of relationship did you have with my granddaughter, Salvatore?"

He grimaced. "It depended on the day." When her expression told him just how little she appreciated that sentiment, he amended with, "Bonnie is my friend. She didn't always like me. I can be… abrasive. And impulsive. But we were _friends_. She was willing to die so I could get out of that prison world." He stared at her seriously. "I don't take that lightly."

Head tipped back in consideration, Sheila finally stood from her seat. "All right. We do the spell, and if I think you're truly in this for the right reasons, I'll help you." She raised a finger, dressed with various rings. "But, if I think, for one second, that you are a threat to my family, I will end your miserable existence. Is that clear?"

He grinned at her. "Crystal."

"Good." Turning on her heel, she walked into the house. "I'll need a few hours to get things ready. Make yourselves lost until I need you." With that, she was gone, the screen door snapping closed behind her.

Damon turned then, to hike his eyebrows at Stefan. "So? Some brotherly bonding or an inquisition?"

Stefan started down the stairs toward his car. "How long have you been back?"

"Inquisition it is," he muttered under his breath. "I woke up in the woods about an hour ago…"

"And before that?" He climbed into the driver's seat.

"Years into the future, brother. Me and Bon-Bon were taking on Mother Dearest and the vitches—"

"I'm sorry… _Vitches?_"

"Vampire-witches," Damon said, buckling himself into the passenger seat. "Keep up."

"Right." Stefan pulled away from the curb and started driving toward the boarding house. "Continue."

"Right, so we were doing our usual thing, you know, teaming up to take on the latest Big Bad. It's kind of a theme of ours; reluctant partners. Anyway, she wasn't too happy with me, but I was pretty sure I was putting a dent in her grudge. I figured I'd have more time after we stopped mom and her vitch brigade from burning the town to the ground—"

"And this worried you _because_…?"

Damon blinked, confused by the question. "What do you mean?"

"Damon you don't even _like _Mystic Falls. You used to complain every time I came back here that it was too _boring_."

"Yeah, well, trust me, boring would be nice for a change…" He scrubbed a hand over his eyes and inhaled deeply. "All right, yeah, Mystic Falls isn't my favorite, but it's still… _home_. And even if I don't really _care _that a bunch of dumb humans were getting eaten, their deaths would lead to suspicion and investigations and a whole load of crap I don't want to deal with. Not to mention… it was kind of my fault."

_That _didn't seem to surprise Stefan in the least. He merely flashed his eyebrows in an 'of course' manner and wondered, "How?"

"Well…" He shifted in his seat. "So, you turned off your humanity—"

"I _what? _Why!?"

"Your girlfriend… Best friend… I don't know. The girl you want to be with, who was also your best friend— _not _Lexi, but just as blonde— she'd just lost her mom. Liz. To cancer. And she couldn't take the pain, so—_fsst_. Flipped it. Pretty much right before you ran over to confess your eternal love and all that jazz. So you made it a mission to get her humanity back on, but she had a rule in place that if anybody tried to get her to flip it before the requested year was up, she'd go on a killing spree. You know, admittedly, she wasn't nearly as bad as you guys were… She's kind of anal, so she promised she wouldn't kill anyone during the year she had it off, she just needed to learn to cope with not having her mom.

"Anyway, you were pretty sure she'd snap and hate herself, so you tried to get her to flip it. You made a little progress, being her emotion trigger and all, _congrats_. But Caroline wasn't happy about it, so she talked you into flipping your switch by holding someone hostage… Long story short, you two went on a killing spree and I went to get mom from a 1903 prison world to get _your_ switch back on. Worked. But she's a lying liar who doesn't care about us at all and was only using me to get the ascendant to retrieve the power-absorbing witches she'd turned into vampires. _They_ went on a holy terror around the town and I enlisted my favorite witch to help me out…" He rolled his eyes. "Even though she's pissed at me, because technically I promised I wouldn't let anyone have the ascendant or let anyone out of it, since she'd trapped a psychotic witch over there that tortured her in the 1994 prison world we'd been stuck in… See how things just sound really complicated when I say them out loud?"

Stefan blinked a few times, clearly trying to wrap his head around it. "So you gave our mother an ascendant and she used it to let loose these… _vitches_."

"Right."

"Even though you promised Bonnie, who is your… _friend?_"

"The note of surprise is really discouraging, but _yes_. We're friends. _Technically_, she said she was done with me when we finished cleaning up the vitch problem, but…" He smiled to himself. "She always comes back."

Stefan looked over at him curiously and hummed.

"What?"

Stefan shook his head. "Nothing. So the vitches killed her?"

"Ah, no. Apparently… mom did." He swallowed tightly, shifting in his seat. "During the fight, my neck was broken, so I woke up to the aftermath. According to Kai, mom bargained with Bonnie, said she wouldn't kill me if Bonnie stopped killing her vitches. Bonnie, kind-hearted little sacrificial lamb that she is, decided that was fair. Then mom killed _her_ to get her out of the way…"

"So, she sacrificed herself for you?"

Damon grimaced. "Yeah. Getting to be a habit with her," he muttered, picking an invisible piece of lint from his shirt.

"And when you found her, you decided… what? That time travel was the only way to get her back? Seems a little… dramatic, don't you think?"

Turning to look at him abruptly, Damon glared. "You don't know her, what she's had to give up for us, how many times she's sacrificed herself so we could live or be happy… I owed her. A lot more than this. So when Kai said I could go back, yeah, I did it. I didn't know how _far_ it would take me, I thought a few hours, a day if I was lucky, but this…" A smile upturned his lips. "This is perfect. I can do it all right this time. I can do it _better_."

Stefan was quiet, staring out at the road, lips pursed.

"Uh-oh. You've got your broody face on…" Damon eyed him. "Go ahead. Point out all the ways this is a bad idea. It's your favorite thing to do," he sighed.

"You said we were closer, in the future…"

"We are."

"How?"

Damon's gaze fell for a moment. "That one should probably be seen through the spell."

Stefan frowned at him, tipping his head questioningly.

"It's a complicated history. It's just…" He took a deep breath. "Elena. You start dating her. You fall in _love_ and everything's going well… But after I found out about Katherine, I spiralled, and Elena was… kind to me. She always was. And something just started happened between us. A spark. Whatever you want to call it."

Stefan, exasperated, raised his eyebrows. "You stole my girlfriend."

"I tried to. A lot. I was pretty convinced we were made for each other. But… she always picked you. Over and over again, it was always you. And then one day, she died. Became a vampire. And suddenly, she _did _want to be with me." He smiled sadly. "Turns out part of that was a sire bond… We got it figured out, obviously. I mean, you were angry at me and you had every right. But… eventually, you got over it. Got over _her_."

"And fell in love with this… Caroline."

Damon turned to look at him, staring at his profile. "You kissed her. It was right before her mom died and you were helping her get the cabin ready so her mom could stay out there, live out the last of her days in peace… And then Liz died and you came to me, told me that something had happened and you weren't sure what to do or say about it. I said you should cut your losses; that if you really loved her, you'd know. Stupid advice, clearly. Because later, after the funeral, you came back and you told me that what you had with Caroline, maybe it wasn't true love in the messed up way we'd known it, but you thought it could be better." His eyes fell, and he turned back to the road. "You and Caroline, you always had each other's backs. I mean, I didn't always _like _her, and she _hated _me—"

"A ringing endorsement right there."

His mouth twitched, amused. "But you worked together… Two peas in a pod."

"Hm." Stefan turned the car down the driveway leading to the boarding house. "So what happened with you and Elena then?"

Damon looked over. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you went back in time for Bonnie, you're bringing together me and Sheila Bennett, who _hates _you, to work out a way to keep Bonnie alive and well, but… What about Elena? She wouldn't even remember you now."

"This isn't about Elena. It's about Bonnie."

"Right. But Damon… Can you even go back?"

Damon paused and then shrugged. "That wasn't in the brochure when I agreed."

"All right, so let's say you can't. And if you change things, what makes you think that you and Elena will get together again? Just from what you told me, it sounds like you two had a pretty rough time finding each other. And if she didn't pick you until she became a vampire, are you going to fix it so she doesn't become one or let her turn so she'll stay with you?"

Damon's jaw ticked as he stared down at the dashboard. "I don't know," he admitted. "Look, whatever happens with Elena, that's… It's not important right now. Once you and Sheila are in on this, we can start working on a plan."

"For what?"

"To make sure every terrible thing that happened here _doesn't,_" he said seriously.

"To Bonnie or to everyone?"

Damon looked over at him, frowning. "She's my priority. It just so happens that most of the bad things that happen around here eventually lead to her getting hurt. So if it makes you feel better, I'll still be helping out everyone else in the long run too."

Stefan nodded slowly, licking his lips. "All right."

"All right you'll help me?"

"All right, I'll do what I can… so long as you're telling the truth." Stefan eyed him seriously. "But if you're lying…"

"Yeah, yeah, you'll stake me yourself. You know, you're still on your rabbit diet, so that threat doesn't hold much water."

Stefan blinked at him. "Still?"

"Oh, yeah, you eventually get a pretty good handle on that. After Caroline's turned, she becomes your sober companion, helps you through a lot of it."

"I… Are you serious?"

"Yeah." He laughed lightly. "I mean, you still have a few slip-ups, but for the most part, you got it under control." Reaching over, he slapped his hand against Stefan's chest. "Congrats, brother." With that, he climbed out of the car, and looked up at the imposing but familiar structure that was his home.

And then Zach Salvatore walked out of the house, and Damon realized there were a few loose ends he hadn't quite thought of.

* * *

**…**

* * *

"He _can't _stay here, Uncle Stefan!" Zach stressed.

"Listen, I know what you're thinking, but it's not like that," Stefan reassured. "Damon is… different now. He won't cause you any trouble. Isn't that right, Damon?"

"Well, technically, in my timeline, I kill him," Damon answered glibly. "But I'm fine with just sending him on his merry way…"

Stefan looked back at him, frowning. "This is his home."

"No, it's _our _home. And it's about to be infested with a whole lot of enemies. So if you want our dear, dear nephew to live a good, long life, then trust me, he should get out of Dodge." He tucked his hands in the pockets of his jacket. "I have a villa in Tuscany, he can live there if he wants." Smiling emptily, he assured, "Free of charge."

"I… Are you serious? _No_." Zach shook his head emphatically. "_This _is my home, and—"

"And you're on the council, which means that you _hate _my kind, which _means_, family or not, you're a _threat_." Damon walked toward him slowly, his eyes narrowed. "Now, I don't _want _to kill you, Zach. Family matters to me. But I have a job to do while I'm here… So if you stay, you keep out of my way. Is that clear?"

Zach stared up at him, putting on a show of not being scared, even as Damon could clearly hear his heart racing. "Clear."

"Good." Damon clapped Zach's shoulders and then abruptly turned him around to face the front door of the boarding house. "Now. Invite me in."

Zach paused, clearly trying to think it over too much. But eventually, with a gulp, he said, "Please, come in."

"Good nephew." Releasing him, Damon strolled over the threshold of the door and started walking down the hall. Turning on his heel to face them, he clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "You know what? I'm famished… Who wants pancakes?"

* * *

**…**

* * *

Stefan watched his brother bounce around the kitchen cheerfully, wearing a Kiss the Cook apron he'd dug up from somewhere, and singing along to the 90's music he had blasting from a stereo. Sitting at the kitchen table, Stefan found his curiosity warring with his suspicion. His brother was known for manipulating situations to fit his needs, and Stefan had no doubts that, if he wanted to, Damon could twist just about any situation to his benefit. But there was something about this, something about the way he talked about Bonnie, that made Stefan think he was actually doing this for her. Whatever _this _was. Because time-travel was a concept almost too out there to be believed, and he was a _vampire_, so that was saying a lot.

A plate was placed down in front of, dragging him from his thoughts, and Stefan raised an eyebrow at the whipped cream fangs. "_Seriously_?"

Damon grinned. "Bonnie hates that."

Shaking his head, Stefan said, "So you do it often then?"

"Every day for four months, and a few times more recently." He shrugged. "It's the little things."

Cutting into his pancakes with the edge of his fork, he wondered, "So this prison world… How'd you die anyway? And how'd you get sent there instead of…?"

"Fire and brimstone?" Damon kicked out a chair across from him and sat down, pouring himself a glass of orange juice. "Well, there was this whole thing going down with the other side falling apart. You'd died, trying to save Blondie's life—"

"Blondie?"

"Caroline," he clarified. "She's about yay high, blonde, blue eyed, cute as a button when she's not on a holy terror. Anyway, so her ex-boyfriend was possessed by a traveler and his girlfriend got sucked up into the void, which you tried to tell him, but he kind of snapped. Caroline was going to break his neck, but he turned on her before she could, so you got in the way, got your heart ripped out for your effort. Good metaphor, now that I think about it. Anyway, Bonnie was the anchor at the time, and with a little help from one half of the witch-twins, we figured out a way to bring back all the important people. We just had to kill all the travelers so they'd die a quick death and stop terrorizing the town. That's how me and Elena died, went out in a blaze of glory. But by the time I got to Bonnie, Twin One and Two decided to cut their losses, so me and Bon-Bon were sucked up into oblivion. Sheila, sap that she is, sent Bonnie to the prison world as a way for her to find peace or something, and I'm pretty sure I only got to tag along because I was holding her hand…"

Stefan shook his head; it was difficult trying to absorb so much information, half of which didn't even make sense to him, but from what he was gathering, life in the future really was far from boring. He wasn't sure how he felt about that. "So your idea now is that you're just going to _fix_ everything that went wrong?" He stared at him searchingly. "Where do you even start?"

"Well, let's see…" Damon licked his lips of stray syrup. "I need to get the moonstone and destroy it. That way it can't be used to change Klaus into a hybrid. Oh, and I need to destroy Emily's necklace, because that can open the tomb and there's a lot of angry, hungry vampires in there, waiting to get out. That way, they stay in there and Bonnie doesn't get possessed by her bitchy, backstabbing ancestor…." His eyes darted around as he thought it through. "Katherine's not going to know I did that though, so she'll still show up looking to play her games… But if we can get to her early this time, maybe we won't have to put up with all of her crap."

"So that's it? Destroy this… moonstone and necklace. And then kill Katherine?" He frowned. "And that's going to solve all of it?"

"It's going to put a dent into things, for sure. Look, after you see everything that happened, then you can help me make a game plan." He grinned. "We can do this together. Get some brotherly bonding in. It'll be great!"

Stefan hummed, turning his attention down to his pancakes. A few minutes passed of him absently eating, trying to work out the details he'd been told, before he finally looked to his brother again. "Have you thought about what might happen… if you fail?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what if you do all this and it all still happens… What if Katherine still comes and this… Klaus guy comes to town. What if you _can't _save Bonnie? What then?"

Damon frowned, his brow furrowed tightly. With a firm shake of his head, he said, "No. That's not an option."

Stefan peered at him a long moment, the stubborn look in his eyes all too familiar. "Okay."

"Okay?"

Taking a deep breath, he nodded. "Okay. Let's make sure you fix it. All of it."

Damon's grin was slow and genuine, brighter than Stefan could remember seeing in decades. Pointing his fork at him, Damon said, "All right."

And Stefan, despite his reservations, felt like he was making the right choice.

* * *

**…**

* * *

It was Sheila who came to them a few hours later, a skeptical look on her face and her grimoire hugged to her in one arm. "Let's get this started, shall we?" she said, before stepping through the door and toward the living room.

"Please, do come in," Damon mocked before following after her. "So how's this work anyway? Is it like a dream walking thing, where I get to take you through all the worst of it and provide a little context or…?"

"No. For the most part, we'll be going in without your unnecessary commentary," she told him, unhooking a bag from her shoulder and taking out a few tall, thick candles. "In fact _you _will barely be a participant. Your mind is where we'll be, but you won't be coming along, not really."

"So what, I'm just going to sit here and wait around for you two to stop poking around in there?" he scoffed, frowning.

"It won't take us long," she said, laying out the candles before she pulled a jar from her bag and began sprinkling black and white speckled dust on the floor.

"Great. I'll have to vacuum too," he muttered.

"Once we go in, we'll absorb your memories as if we were there with you. We'll feel all the same things you felt; fear, anger, revulsion, all of it. And when we wake up, we'll know everything there is to know about you, Damon." She looked up then, peering at him with her narrowed eyes. "Are you sure that's what you want?"

"Would you believe me if I just _told _you what happened?" he wondered.

Her lips thinned. "I can't take the chance that you might be lying, not if it means putting Bonnie's life in danger," she answered crisply.

He gritted his teeth. "I wouldn't hurt her."

"_Have you_?" she wondered, staring at him curiously. "Were you the reason for any of her pain in your future?"

He looked away. "I regret that. Choices were made that I didn't want to make, that I didn't have control over, not really."

"That's not an answer. That's an _excuse_."

"I'm here now, to change things," he reminded her.

"Yes, you are, and I might give credit where credit's due. But remember something… just because you're changing it, doesn't mean you didn't once do it."

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

"Actions make a person, Damon. It doesn't matter that you change things for the better now. Hindsight is 20/20. You have to take responsibility for your mistakes, apologize for them. Fixing them so they never happened may make things better for us, but until you rectify yourself with who you were, who you _are_, then you're doomed to make the same choices, the same mistakes, all over again."

Damon frowned, staring at her good and hard. "I won't. Back then, the first time around, I would've sacrificed anyone and anything for what I want."

"So what's the difference now, hm? I can see in your eyes you're willing to do a lot, maybe even worse. So your aim is different, who you're doing it _for _is different, but are _you _any different? Or are you the same selfish boy who made poor choices that hurt people in the first place?"

He swallowed tightly, ducking his eyes.

"That's what I thought." Sheila turned back to what she was doing then, and laid out a bowl on the floor, filling it with a honey colored liquid of some kind, poured from an old Mason jar. She sprinkled some of the dust into it along with a few dried leaves. "Go on and get Stefan. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can begin planning."

Damon nodded stiffly before he turned on his heel. He only made it a few feet before Stefan appeared, however, and Damon wondered just how much his brother had eavesdropped on. "Ready?" he asked simply.

Stefan nodded at him before walking past to join Sheila in her makeshift circle.

Her legs were crossed beneath her and her hands rested atop her knees, palms up. "Come. Sit," she told them, pointing to opposite ends. "Once we get started, it won't stop until we've reached the end of your memory."

Sighing as he sat down, Damon wondered, "So, how much of my memory are you going to be looking at? Is this a 2009-and-beyond look-see, or is this the whole shebang, because…" He smirked. "Trust me, there's some things you don't want to be looking at."

Sheila curled her lip at him. "You'll focus on the exact moment you want us to start at, the day you returned to Mystic Falls, and we'll see everything from that moment on. Understood?"

He nodded, turning his owns hands over in mimicry of her.

Turning to Stefan, she told him, "A vampire's memory will be drastically different from a human's. There are points when the vampire nature will cloud things, make emotions more potent. Depending on whether he had his humanity on, you may not always understand the motives behind what he's doing or saying. When there's no conscious to guide things, it tends to leave things in a limbo where common sense doesn't always apply."

"That's my motto," Damon quipped.

Sheila ignored him. "Take that into consideration the farther you delve. You'll want to understand as _you _see things, as _you _feel them. But you can't think as you, you have to think as _him_."

Stefan hesitated for only a moment before he nodded.

"Good. Then let's begin."

The candles in the center flared up, fire burning high, and Damon's mouth quirked.

"Eyes closed," Sheila told them, watching both of them to make sure they followed her order before she too let her eyes fall closed. "You'll feel a pressure behind your eyes, Damon. It won't hurt, and there's nothing you can do to stop it. Trying will only make it worse and waste time, so don't."

"Roger."

"Focus on the first time, the moment you drove past the 'Welcome to Mystic Falls' sign. Think of nothing else, only that… Let it become your focal point, the only thing you see or know. Remember that moment, and don't let go of it."

Her voice was oddly hypnotic, and Damon found his mind drifting, moving toward the fuzzy, sepia image of the sign, of the hum of his car engine, his fingers tapping on the steering wheel, the radio singing some god-awful Miley Cyrus song, before he grimaced and changed the channel. Cobra Starship. That was do-able.

"_You heard that I was trouble but you couldn't resist, I make them good girls go bad…_" he sang along, head bobbing to the beat.

"That was terrible. And your singing sucks," a voice piped up from beside him.

Damon frowned, and turned his eyes to the right to see Bonnie seated beside him. "What the hell're you doing here?"

She shrugged. "You're the one that thought me into existence."

He frowned. "You can't be here. I don't meet you for a few more days."

"I don't think that matters much. They're already digging around in your memory. Can't you tell?"

Damon's face scrunched up as he concentrated and, truth be told, he _could _feel a faint pressure behind his eyes. "So they're up there now, seeing everything I did?"

"Does that bother you?" she wondered, leaning back in her seat.

He shrugged, turning his eyes out the front window, only to see "Welcome to Mystic Falls" flash by before he was once again twenty feet before the border, and heading toward the sign. "What's to be worried about? I offered, didn't I?"

"It's different though, isn't it? Maybe if they were really there, if they knew what it felt like to be under that pressure, but they're only going to see it from your end. They won't know what I was feeling, why I made the choices I made, why I sacrificed myself. For Jeremy, for Elena, for _you_…"

"And why did you? Huh?" He looked over at her, frowning. "Why'd you send me away when you were in that cave? Why'd you let my mother kill you to save me?"

Bonnie stared at him, her mouth set in a line. "Anything I say will just be excuses you make up for me. I'm not her." She shook her head. "And the Bonnie you're trying to save isn't her either."

"What're you talking about? Of course she is."

"The actions make the person, Damon. This Bonnie is just a seventeen year old girl who has no idea that the supernatural world lives all around her. She has no clue how much it wants to chew her up and spit her out. She doesn't _have _to be strong yet. So everything you love about her, that fire in her that pushes you to do the right thing, it's not there yet."

"It's in her, it just hasn't had a reason to spark," he insisted.

"And every reason it _would _have will be snuffed out by _you_." She shook her head. "So what happens then? What do you do when this Bonnie doesn't become_ your _Bonnie?"

"It doesn't matter what she does," he defended. "She's still _Bonnie_. She saved me, I owe her, it's as simple as that."

"Is it?" she wondered, her expression softening. "Is it simple at all?"

He frowned. "Kai sent me here because—"

"Because he was struggling with his own guilt. Because Luke's conscious made him regret things he _never _would have regretted… He sent you here to absolve his sins, and you're taking it as a last ditch effort to absolve yours."

Swallowing tightly, he insisted, "She deserves this. She deserves a better life. A life I didn't _screw _up for her."

"And what happens after? What happens when you fix everything you can think of and something else comes? What choice will you make then? Do you walk away or do you stay? What's better for her? Is she safer with you or without you? Can you do this without her? Can you walk away from her for good?"

"I don't _know!_" he exclaimed, his hands twisting tightly around the steering wheel. "Why can't this be simple? Huh? Destroy the moonstone, get rid of the necklace, _kill _Katherine, and then we're good. No more problems, no more reasons for any of them to die or Bonnie to throw herself on the fire to save them."

"What if that's her destiny?" she wondered. "What if, no matter what you do, she still ends up sacrificing herself for the greater good?"

When he turned to look at her, it wasn't Bonnie beside him, it was Elena, staring at him with those sad, doe eyes of hers. "What if you can only save one of us?"

Before he could answer, the welcome sign flashed by in his peripheral vision, and then he was sucking in air, his lungs burning, and looking at the shocked and worried faces of Stefan and Sheila.

"What?" he croaked, looking between them.

"It happened. It really…" Stefan blinked, a tear trickling down his cheek, the information and emotional overload hitting him hard. "All of those people… _Lexi_…" His brow furrowed. "All of that death."

Damon stared at him a long moment, before he turned his gaze toward Sheila. "You saw what happens to her? To Bonnie?"

Sheila's pallor was off; her wrinkles somehow more pronounced. As if, during those few minutes she was deep in his memory, she had aged years. Finally, she raised her weary eyes to meet Damon's. "I'll help you. For _her_. To keep those things from happening. To keep her _safe_."

He breathed a sigh of relief then, his shoulders slumping with it. "Good. That's good. Now all we have to do is make up a plan and—"

"But I have a condition," Sheila interrupted.

"Of course you do," he muttered under his breath, exasperated, before waving a hand at her. "Please. Share with the class."

"If I do this, you stay away from her," she demanded, staring at him seriously. "You don't talk to her, you don't bring her into any of this, you keep your distance."

Damon's face twisted up angrily. "_No_."

"_Damon_," Stefan said.

"I know our history isn't the best, you saw it for yourself, but Bonnie is the reason I'm here," he told her. "I _won't_ abandon her."

"She doesn't _know _you," Sheila insisted. "Your Bonnie _died_, and if we do this, she never will never become her."

Damon's lip curled in a sneer. "Bonnie is _Bonnie_. And she's the only friend I've got, so no way in hell am I walking away from her."

"I won't agree to help you until you do," Sheila told him, standing from the floor.

"Like hell you won't," he shouted, pushing up to stand, his body vibrating with his frustration. "You _need _my help."

"Do I? I'm sure I could find the moonstone and the necklace all on my own. I've seen your memories, Damon. I know where they are."

"You think it's that easy?" He smirked, scoffing. "Go ahead, go home and play with your little summoning spells. You saw the future as it happened, not as I'll change it. All I need to do is move a few things around and everything you think you know changes." He stepped up toward her, choosing not to heed the dark look on her face. "Like it or not, Bonnie matters to me. I'm not leaving it in your hands or anyone else's to keep her safe. If she doesn't want me around, that's her choice, but unless it comes out of her mouth, you won't stop me."

Sheila glared up at him, her mouth set in a fierce line. "I know how you feel about who she was, the Bonnie who was with you in your future. I know how much losing her hurt you. How afraid you were that she'd died in that prison world, alone, thinking you didn't care. I know that you make pancakes because they remind you of her and that when she came to you before anyone else, when she hugged you in that kitchen, it was the first time in a long time that you felt first in someone's life. But that girl that you held, who was willing to die for you, she is _not _who is here today. And if you love her at all, you won't make her become that girl just because you miss her."

Damon ground his teeth together, but said nothing.

Sheila gathered up her things and walked to the door. "I suggest you hurry up and find what you're looking for. The sooner we destroy the necklace and the moonstone, the fewer things we have to worry about. And the sooner you two can get out of my town." The door slammed shut behind her.

Damon scowled at the floor, hands on his hips as he kicked at the dusty circle, doubt chewing on his insides.

"Damon?"

"What?" he snapped, turning toward his brother.

Stefan stared at him searchingly, as if trying to rectify what he'd learned with the man standing in front of him. "What I said earlier, about us doing this together…" He nodded. "I still mean it."

Damon's face smoothed out a little and a small breath left him. "Even after seeing me bang you future ex-girlfriend?"

Stefan snorted, rolling his eyes to himself. "As long as you avoid sleeping with them this time around, I think we can work something out."

"Them?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Stay away from Caroline. What you did… The things you said to her…"

Damon winced. "Yeah." He frowned. "I never apologized for that."

"You should." He shrugged. "She won't know what it's for, and hopefully she never finds out. But… She deserves an apology."

Damon nodded. "Yeah. You're right. She does." He stared at him searchingly then. "But you'll really help me? Change things."

"I will." Stefan lifted his chin a little higher then. "Why don't we start planning things? See what else we need to focus on. And then… maybe later, I was thinking we might stop by the Mystic Grill. Meet a few people…"

Damon grinned slowly. "Well, we are _new _in town. It's important to make a good impression."

Snorting, Stefan nodded. "Something like that."

"All right. You got a deal, brother." Damon walked toward him, clapping him on the shoulder. "Let's plan this sucker out."

Stefan smiled briefly, and followed him to the library. They had a busy afternoon ahead of them.

[**continue**: chapter three.]

* * *

**AUTHOR'S NOTE**

* * *

_**s**o, a lot of people were wondering about the journey of damon and stefan, and i basically plowed right through that, lol. but i promise you, just because stefan knows about the future and that damon isn't lying doesn't mean they're not going to still have a **lot** of growth and trust building. stefan may have seen how damon felt, but he also saw him kill people, betray his trust, hurt caroline, and kill lexie. so it's not all rainbows on that half, it's more like stefan knows he's not lying and he also knows that helping will save a lot of lives. stefan's an empathetic person, and he wants as little death, murder and mayhem on his conscious as he can get._

_**b**ut sheila also raises a really important part for damon, which is - who is he? how far is he willing to go? and does he completely understand the ramifications of the choices he's going to be making? because damon's already said he's willing to go as far as it takes, but are there limits to that? there's a few hints about what's going to become a roadblock for him during his growth here, as well as some more blatant issues like the fact that the bonnie he will be meeting next chapter is not the same bonnie that died for him, and he'll have to figure out how he feels about that and her. _

_**s**o clearly, a lot of things are going to be happening. i really did like the idea of having sheila and stefan know about the future though, because damon just does not have the trust factor on his side and there's really no way they would actually believe him without hard evidence. let's face it, even knowing it, sheila wants him exactly nowhere near her granddaughter (for good reason). but this is a trio that will be spending a lot of time together trying to fix things, and i needed them to be completely aware of each other, even, in some cases, **more **aware of each other. because as much damon thinks he knows himself and his feelings, they just had a crash course in him and they might know him better than even he does at this point. _

_**s**omeone also asked if there are two damons, but no. there is only one damon. damon's future conscience returned to his 2009 body, which means that his 2009 conscious is gone and this is the beginning point for him. i know a few people thought that would be interesting, and it certainly could be, but i feel like it might draw attention away from the main plot points. really cool line of thinking, though. _

_**s**omeone else raised the point of **how** caroline/stefan will happen rather than stefan/elena. you see a little bit of it in this chapter along the lines of how stefan feels about everything, and it'll be touched on more in the next chapter, but it really boils down to stefan knowing what the future holds and questioning whether it's worth the heartbreak and what he would be happier with if it were to come to fruition. so, if i were in his shoes, and i was aware that being with elena would lead to her questioning her feelings for me because of a connection with my brother, and having enough distance from the situation that he hasn't actually met elena, it would seem smarter to avoid it, right? right. that doesn't mean elena's going to be totally ignored in this story, however. she does tie into everything, being both the doppleganger and bonnie and caroline's bff. _

_**s**o, now that this note is way, way longer than it probably needs to be, and i'm sure most of you didn't bother reading it, i'll end it here. :) _

_**t**hank you all so much for your support! i'm really, really curious about what you think of this chapter and what's happening and how you foresee things playing out. so please, if you can, leave a review! _

_**t**hank you for reading, _

**\- Lee | Fina**


	3. hello, is it me you're looking for?

**chapter rating**: pg-13/teen  
**word count**: 6,782  
**summary**: A grieving Damon is offered the chance to save his favorite witch; time travel. Thrown back to 2009, he has a fresh start ahead of him and only one goal; keep Bonnie Bennett safe and happy. Falling in love with her wasn't on the to-do list, but he was already half-way there, so why not finish?

* * *

**hello, is it me you're looking for?**

* * *

**iii.**

"I'm just saying, there was a serious lack of prime real estate today. I was hoping that somehow, over the summer, _someone _would up their hotness. But did they? _No_." Bonnie huffed, leaning her hip against the pool table. "What about you? You see anybody you like that you're going to add to your 'To Do' list this year…?" she teased.

Caroline sighed, shrugging her shoulders. "I think we're in the same boat. I didn't see anybody worth a second glance. And is it just me, or did even _Matt _get less hot over the summer…?" She frowned, casting her eyes in the boy's direction, where he stood at the bar, football jacket on and hair draped across his forehead. "Maybe it's all the Elena-pining… it _aged _him."

"Caroline…" Bonnie chastised, but let out a snorting laugh.

"What? I'm just saying… I know she needed some time, and I get it. It's just… Elena and Matt, you know? They're practically pre-voted as the couple that gets married out of high school and goes on to live a happily ever after _thing_, you know?"

"Maybe." Bonnie shrugged before hopping up to sit on the edge of the pool table. "I don't know if I really believe in destiny, though. I mean, just because things look one way doesn't mean they can't change on a dime, right?" Her mouth turned down at the corners. "Look at Elena. One minute her parents were there and the next…"

"Yeah… Bummer."

Bonnie blinked. "Bummer?"

"I'm sorry! I'm not good at showing sympathy. We can't all be so in tune with our feelings," she defended, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, don't say it like I'm a freak just because I understand what she's going through."

"Not a freak, just… I don't know. What's that word that's like sympathetic, but different?"

"Empathetic?"

"Yeah, that one. That's what you are."

Bonnie frowned, side-eying her friend uncertainly. "Is that… a compliment?"

Caroline shrugged. "Sure. It means you're next level nice, right?"

"Something like that…"

"Well, you are."

Bonnie grinned. "Thanks, Care."

"Sure. Now…" She waved her cue stick. "Are we going to play or…?" She paused, staring at something over Bonnie's shoulder. Her eyes slowly widened, brows hiked high. "You know what I said before? About nobody worth a second glance? I take it back. He's worth three glances, minimum."

Bonnie frowned briefly, before turning her head to seek out what had Caroline's complete and total attention. And then she saw him, standing just inside the front door. The kind of handsome she might see on one of Grams' cheap dollar-store romance novels, the ones she pretended weren't hers and hid under couch cushions or in drawers whenever Bonnie spotted them. He turned his head, seemingly looking directly at them, and she caught the full weight of his stare, a piercing seriousness to it that belied his age.

"_Whoa_," Caroline murmured, a little breathlessly.

Bonnie wanted to agree, but her eyes swiftly cut to the left, only to land on a somewhat familiar face. She remembered him from that morning, standing on the side of the road, handsome but lost. He'd shaken it off quickly, though, plastering a smirk across his mouth and wiggling his fingers at her in an unexpected wave. "Whoa is right," she murmured to her friend.

"You think they're new?"

"They're not local."

"Brothers or boyfriends?" Caroline wondered.

Bonnie's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "Hmm… I'd say brothers."

"I call dibs."

She scoffed. "On which one?"

"Either. _Both_." She smirked, leaning her pool cue against the table. "First come, first serve, right?"

Bonnie let out a musical laugh, smiling widely as she watched the confident blonde step forward, her shoulders back and her chin raised. She was halfway across the room when Elena stepped into the Grill, and then Bonnie noticed Caroline's footsteps falter. Bonnie's mouth slowly turned down as she wondered just what Caroline might do. It wasn't uncommon for Caroline's confidence to flag when presented with Elena, and though Bonnie tried not to notice it, it was hard not to. Her two best friends, though not exactly enemies, did tend to vie for the same things, even if Elena was often the one who came out victor, whether she tried to or not. In some ways, Bonnie got it. She understood why Caroline would view Elena as a competitor sometimes. But, for the most part, she just wanted her friends to be happy and to get along, leaving any competition in the dust.

Elena tugged on the sleeves of her shirt and stepped forward, bowing her head a little and weaving through the tables. She seemed to be headed toward Bonnie, who stood a little taller in wait, but she didn't get too far before Matt intercepted her. 'Awkward' wafted off each of them so thickly Bonnie couldn't stand to watch. Instead, she turned her attention back toward Caroline, who seemed to be carefully critiquing the reactions of both new boys before she made her choice.

Bonnie's own eyes drifted toward her Morning Stranger, wondering if he too had been ensnared by the natural aura of one Elena Gilbert. His eyes had wandered in her direction, as he seemed to be watching the stilted conversation between the former couple, but then his gaze darted abruptly toward Bonnie, and she felt her heart give a sudden lurch in her chest.

His eyes were sharp, his mouth curved up in that same funny smile he'd offered earlier that day. There was something about it, something familiar that she couldn't quite pin point. Feeling a sudden burst of nerves, she wondered if she should busy herself with something else. It looked like pool was officially off the table, so she laid her cue down and made her way down the stairs. Feeling a little hungry, she debated on a basket of fries or onion rings as she searched around for a table. Or maybe a salad was better, since they were officially taking on cheer practice again… _Ugh_, farewell potatoes.

Dropping down at a table with enough room for her currently distracted friends, Bonnie grabbed out a menu to peruse over her more diet-approved options, even if her eyes kept wandering back to the basket of onion rings. Maybe if she and Caroline split a basket, it wouldn't be so bad… And if Elena joined in, it'd be even better, right? Okay, she'd been back at school all of a day and she was already trying to cheat her routine. Probably not a good sign…

Hearing the creak of the plastic booth seat, Bonnie flicked her menu down, expecting to see either Elena or Caroline, instead she was greeted by mischievous blue eyes and a bright grin.

Caught off guard, she blurted, "_You_."

"Me." He pointed at himself, eyes squinted. "And the reason for this reaction is because…?"

She sat up a little taller, raising her chin. "I _saw_ you this morning… when I was leaving my Grams'. Ringing any bells?"

His brows hiked. "Right. Yeah. _Yes_. That was me."

She nodded. "You waved."

His mouth turned up at the corners once more. "You waved back."

Crossing her arms atop the table, she said, "It was polite."

"Are you always polite?"

"I try to be."

"I don't," he admitted freely.

Her brow raised. "Then why'd you wave?"

He shrugged "It's a natural reaction when I see a pretty girl staring at me."

"I was not _staring_."

"So you agree you're pretty."

She snorted, her eyes narrowing. "Was that a Mean Girls reference?"

He shrugged. "I'm a man of many layers..." He grinned. "Change of subject?"

"_Please_."

"All right… How about introductions?" He held a hand out for her, searching her eyes with a curiously high degree of attention. "Damon Salvatore."

Bonnie stretched her own hand out toward him, but, before it could make contact, a throat cleared, drawing their attention. Bonnie's hand fell as she turned her head abruptly to the left to find the boy from earlier, standing next to Caroline. He stared at Damon, his brows hiked, something meaningful in his eyes that flew over Bonnie's head. She looked between them curiously, and wondered if she'd been wrong about the 'brother' label of earlier.

"Bonnie, these are the Salvatore brothers. Stefan and Damon," Caroline piped up, moving around to slide into the seat next to her. "They just moved into the old boarding house. You know, the creepy one that we used to dare each other to sneak into."

"Oh. Is it back in business? Grams said they shut it down forever ago."

"No, it's still just a house," Stefan said, offering her a friendly smile. "We moved in with our uncle recently."

"Three people in that giant house…" Caroline shook her head. "Did you each take a wing?"

"And miss out on brotherly bonding time? _Nah_." Damon shifted over in the seat. "Stefan, say hello to Bonnie. We had a moment this morning," he shared.

"You did?" Caroline asked, her brows hiked in surprise. She slapped the back of her hand against Bonnie's shoulder. "Why didn't I hear about it?"

"We did _not_. We waved at each other." She turned, eyes narrowed in on Damon. "What were you doing out there anyway? Grams doesn't live anywhere near the boarding house…"

"I was jogging. Health matters."

"In _leather_?" she asked skeptically.

He smirked, leaning forward. "So you remember what I was wearing? I don't know, Bon-Bon, that sounds like a _moment_."

Inhaling deeply, she tipped her head. "Maybe I just find it _strange _that some weird guy was standing around, staring at me as I drove away. Maybe I remembered so I could _report_ you later if anything else weird happened."

"Is the crime rate high here? Should I be escorting my little brother to and from school from now on?"

"So you _are _in school?" Caroline asked, perking up a bit as she turned her attention to Damon's brother. "I didn't see you there."

"I… didn't go today." He frowned at his brother. "I might actually just do homeschooling."

"_Oh_." Her face turned down in disappointment. "Are you sure? We have a lot of functions coming up. We could definitely use some help. And you'd already know two people. Bonnie and I would be glad to show you around?"

"Would we?" Bonnie asked, looking toward her.

"Of _course_ we would," Caroline dismissed. "We love meeting new people."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, Care."

"See! Two people who can show you around. In fact, there's a party coming up, down at the falls." She grinned. "You should come. Both of you."

Stefan's brows hiked uncertainly. "Oh, I don't… know…"

"Sure we will. Stefan loves parties." Damon patted his brother's shoulder as he looked between the girls. "Can't guarantee anything on going to school. Stefan's already pretty advanced. He's only got a few more assignments before he's graduated. Everything's online these days. _But_, it's been a while since we were around here, so I'm sure he'd love it if you showed him around town… Caroline, was it?"

She nodded, smiling brightly. "I'd love to."

Stefan looked between them and then sent a soft smile toward Caroline. "Great. I could use some friends… It's been a while." He darted his eyes toward Bonnie.

"Then it's settled." To Bonnie, he said, "Since he's taken care of, does this mean you get to show me around the falls?"

"There's this fancy thing called GPS. It's a lifesaver," she snarked in return.

Caroline turned toward her, eyes wide, and said quietly, so they couldn't hear, "Icksnay on the itchyness-bay."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. If she were being honest with herself though, she wasn't sure why she was reacting to Damon like this. There was just something about him that got her back up. And, in a strange way, it was kind of... _fun_.

"Bonnie?"

Startled, she turned to see Elena standing at the end of the table, shifting her feet from side to side. "'Lena… hey." She glanced from her to the others at the table. "Uh, this is Damon and Stefan Salvatore. They're new to town."

"Oh. Cool. Uh, hi." She offered a half-hearted smile, gaze lingering on Stefan a beat, before returning her attention to Bonnie. "Can we talk really quick…? I don't want to interrupt or anything but—"

"No, it's fine." Bonnie looked to Caroline, who shuffled over and out of the way so Bonnie could stand.

"We'll be right back," Elena said to Caroline, who smiled hollowly, and retook her seat. Taking Bonnie by the elbow, she led her away quickly.

"That was weird," Bonnie told her. "And a little obvious. Caroline's not going to forget that you left her behind. She probably thinks we're talking about her."

"What? No, it has nothing to do with that." She chewed her lip. "I talked to Matt…"

Bonnie sighed. "I saw." They walked to the edge of the room, out of hearing range of everyone, and leaned against the rail that ran around the dining area. Bonnie double checked on Caroline to see her glancing over at them periodically, before Stefan seemed to catch and hold her attention. Turning back to Elena, she wondered, "Are you okay?"

Elena blew out a heavy sigh. "Yeah. I guess. I just… I don't know. I feel bad. I keep telling him I need space, time to think, but… I don't know if that's it."

Bonnie frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean… I think it's over. I—I don't think the person I was before, the one Matt loved, I don't think that's who I am anymore. I don't think I can _be _her."

Reaching out, Bonnie rubbed a soothing hand over Elena's arm. "Nobody expects you to just get over what happened… Your parents died. It's a pretty life-changing thing."

"Yeah. I know. I just… I don't know how to tell him that. I feel like I already broke his heart and this'll just make things worse."

"You can't keep him waiting for you… It's only prolonging the inevitable. I know it sounds harsh, but it's better to break his heart now than let him wallow in this, holding out hope for the rest of the year…"

"Yeah. You're right." She sighed and hugged her arms around herself, before turning her gaze back toward the table. "So what's the deal with those two, anyway?"

"They're brothers. Live up at the old boarding house with their uncle…" She grinned lightheartedly. "I think Caroline's trying to feel out which one she wants."

"I'm pretty sure she's only got once choice… One of them seems pretty focused on you."

"What? _No_…" She turned her gaze toward the table, only to find blue eyes staring right back at her. Rather than look away when he was caught, Damon wiggled his fingers in a wave, and she felt a rush of _something _move through her. Irritation, amusement, awareness, _lust_. She wasn't sure. But it tingled right down to her toes. In response, she frowned at him, but he only seemed to laugh. Bonnie rolled her eyes, and huffed. The lights flickered suddenly, and she turned her gaze upward.

"Which one is he?" Elena wondered, her head tipped curiously.

"That one's Damon. The other one, that Caroline is _definitely _reading the palm of, that's Stefan."

Elena's mouth cracked with a smile. "You remember when Matt and Tyler made that stupid joke, where they'd spit in our hands and call it the swimming pool."

"I'm pretty sure that was mostly Tyler, but yeah." She laughed. "Flirting was so _weird _when we were younger."

"Flirting is _still _weird. Like you, for instance, glaring at _Damon_."

"I am not—" She was definitely glaring. "I'm not _flirting_ with him. He's just… I don't know."

"You hardly know him," Elena pointed out, amused.

"Whatever." She turned her back to the table and focused on Elena. "Are you going to be okay? You wanna hang out at my place, eat junk food, and talk about anything but boys?"

"Yes… But I can't." Her shoulders slumped. "School's kicking my butt. I'm already behind and I don't need another day of Tanner making me feel like an idiot."

"Fine, but… Don't go home yet. Come on, share a basket of onion rings with me, maybe a game of pool…?"

Elena smiled slowly. "Sure. _One _game."

Bonnie bounced. "Yay."

As they hooked arms and moved back toward the table, Bonnie smiled comfortingly down at Caroline. "How do you feel about onion rings?"

"_Yum_. You read my mind!"

With a grin, Bonnie slid in next to her, sandwiched in the middle as Elena sat on her other side. It took all of a beat for Caroline to offer up a conversation starter, having no patience for the sudden silence that filled the table. Bonnie leaned back and enjoyed the enthusiasm coming off her friend, as well as the focused attention Stefan Salvatore was giving her. Maybe this year would be different. Maybe this year Caroline wouldn't have to compete with Elena at all.

And then Bonnie looked to her left and realized Elena's curious gaze was bouncing between both boys, and she realized nothing was ever as simple as she wanted it to be.

* * *

**…**

* * *

"So? You think that accomplished anything?" Stefan wondered, taking a seat on the edge of his bed. "They know who we are at least. That helps, right?"

"Sure. Except so far we're just good looking strangers." Damon leaned back in a chair, legs up on the desk. "Well, _I_ am. I'm pretty sure Barbie is planning your June wedding."

Stefan rolled his eyes, his mouth ticked up faintly. "Be nice. Caroline is…"

"Insecure, needy, and _terrified_ that you'll like Elena better. I know. She might hate me in my timeline— for good reason, obviously—but I do know what makes her tick. Even if I'm a jackass about it most of the time."

With a hum, Stefan looked over at him. "You and Bonnie seemed to be getting along… or not. I can't always tell with you."

"It's a system of ours. I'm a dick, she calls me on it. She's instinctively reacting to that part of me. It's fine. It's our shtick."

"Your _shtick _looks a lot like blatant flirting."

Damon rolled his eyes and sat the desk chair back down on its legs. "And that's my cue to let you and your hero hair get some beauty sleep." He stood and rubbed his hands together. "We've got a bonfire to crash tomorrow. Make sure you wear a tight shirt and buff out those brood lines on your forehead. I need you to keep Carebear busy while I sneak under Bonnie's defenses and convince her I'm the Costner to her Whitney."

Stefan blinked at him, calling out, "You're stranger than I remember," as Damon made his way to the door.

"You'll get used to it." Leaving the room, he let the door close behind him and made his way down the hall to his bedroom. It was musty and in desperate need of a cleaning and a little airing out, but he'd have it back in order in a few short days.

Below, he could hear Zach puttering around, high on anxiety and probably second-guessing inviting Damon to stay at the boarding house. Not that he had much of a choice. Damon liked the creature comforts his home offered him. He was still on the fence about whether he'd let Zach stay. For the time being, he wasn't a threat. But if he turned into one, well, Damon would just have to compel him to pack up and move elsewhere. Or kill him. It really depended on what Zach did to put himself in Damon's bad books. Only time would tell.

Making his way to the bathroom, he stripped off his clothes, eager for a nice, hot, bubble bath. He deserved it. Time travel was a tough job, and he had a lot of work ahead of him.

* * *

**…**

* * *

"I thought we were getting ready at my place," Bonnie said, sitting on Caroline's bed with a textbook open in her lap while Caroline raided her closet.

"That was before I realized we needed to look _extra _cute." Caroline stomped her foot and blew out an irritated breath as she discarded yet another dress. "I need to go shopping."

Amused, Bonnie shook her head. "Your closet is like _three _of mine."

"Right now, I wish it was _four_…" She pouted. "We should've gone to Elena's. She's got all the good stuff."

"_Hey!_"

Caroline waved a dismissive hand. "Oh, you know what I mean. But seriously, you need to go shopping too." She gestured to Bonnie's entire person, from head to toe. "You need to stop hiding all of _that _under frumpy clothes."

"I don't know if I'm flattered or offended right now…"

"Flattered, definitely." Caroline grinned. "Now come help me pick out something _hot_."

Sighing, Bonnie put the book aside and slid off the bed. "All right. But I hope you know this counts as my one good deed for the week…"

* * *

**…**

* * *

"For the record, we're too old for this."

Damon snorted. "We're too old for everything." Clapping a hand to Stefan's shoulder, he said, "Live a little." They walked through the woods, spattered with groups of teenagers in various stages of drunk. "Y'know, if this was a few years ago, I'd point out what a perfect hunting ground this is…"

"If memory serves me —that is, _your _memory— it _was _the perfect hunting ground. You tore into Vicki Donovan's neck not far from here, made it into some game." Stefan pursed his lips. "Wasn't your best moment."

"I had a lot of bad moments. I'm a slow learner." Damon looked back at him lightly. "Look on the bright side, Vicki will live out the night, completely unscathed and unbitten."

Stefan hummed, unconvinced. "Let's just find the girls, all right?"

"Great idea," Damon agreed, turning his gaze out over the group. "Now where, oh where, would my little bird be…"

With a sigh, Stefan tipped his head and let his hearing reach out. He sifted through various voices, pausing on Elena Gilbert, an eerie whisper of the past (and a strangely near and distant future), before moving beyond her and finally found—_there_.

"I _told _you it got cold at night," Bonnie said. "This is why we should've brought jackets."

"Jackets aren't cute. Suffer a little for fashion."

Bonnie scoffed. "I'm suffering enough. These jeans are practically _painted _on."

"I know, that's the point. Now people can see that you have an ass. And not just any ass, but an _amazing _one. You're _welcome_."

"_Caroline_," she sighed.

"Found them," Stefan said, turning to Damon.

"Me too." He smirked. "I'll give Barbie one thing. Her fashion advice is _impeccable_." With that, he started forward, and a reluctant Stefan followed.

They crossed the space between them and the girls quickly, moving around a few buzzed teenagers, and a few more that were completely lost in each other, nearly toppling from a log.

"Stefan!" Caroline lit up as she spotted him. "Hey! You made it…"

He smiled at her, coming to a stop just in reach, her hand falling to his arm and squeezing.

"I forgot to get your number from you last night. I wasn't sure you knew how to get here."

"Yeah, we had to ask around, but one too many cars headed this way with drunk people yelling out their windows was a bit of a giveaway."

She laughed. "Good. I was just telling Bonnie that we haven't been down to the falls in too long. You should come."

Stefan glanced at his brother, who was wiggling his eyebrows at him as he stood next to Bonnie. "Uh, sure. I'd like that."

"Great!" Caroline hooked her arm through his. "Are you thirsty?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I could drink."

She led him toward a cooler, chattering all the while, and though he knew he should stay back and keep an eye on his brother, spending a little time with Caroline and getting to know her (the current her) better had a bigger draw. So he took the bottle of beer she passed him and walked with her down the rocky path leading to the falls, listening to her voice fill up the silence.

* * *

**…**

* * *

"Aren't you a little old for this?" Bonnie wondered.

He peered down at her curiously. "How old do you _think_ I am?"

"How old _are_ you?"

"I asked first."

Her eyes narrowed and her hand found her hip. "I asked _second_."

He grinned, chuckling under his breath. "Are you always this combative?"

Her mouth opened, ajar, but she paused, and then admitted, "No." She glanced away before fiddling with her red cup. "You just bug me."

"In a good way?"

"_Is _there a good way to bug someone?" she wondered.

"You tell me."

Sighing, she looked up at him, exasperated. "Are you always this _annoying?_"

"Only to people I like."

"You don't even _know_ me…"

"Well, why don't we change that?" he suggested, staring down at her searchingly. "C'mon, what've you got to lose? Your bestie is making heart-eyes at my brother, we've got this nice, toasty fire to keep us warm, and nothing but time to waste."

"So what, you want to play twenty questions?" She cocked her head, an eyebrow raised skeptically.

"I want… to get to know you." He nodded his head toward an empty log. "You up for it, Bennett?"

Bonnie chewed her lip, but moved toward the log to take a seat.

Damon followed, looking rather smug.

"You start," she told him.

"All right… We'll start simple. How do you feel about the current race relations in America?"

She blinked. "_That's _simple?"

He grinned. "No, that was an ice breaker."

With a laugh, she shook her head. "Smooth."

"I try." He rested his arms on his knees. "How long have you and Blondie known each other?"

Bonnie softened. "Caroline? God, since forever. It's a small town, so we all kind of grew up around each other. My mom was friends with her mom and Elena's mom, so finding each other was easy."

He nodded. "What about staying together?"

"I don't know." She shrugged. "I mean, Caroline and Elena don't always get along. There's… insecurities, I guess. When you're that close to someone all the time, sometimes you start to compare yourselves to them. Like, you and Stefan, you're brothers, have you ever thought he was better at something than you?"

He hummed, turning his gaze away. "He's an exceptional brooder."

She snorted. "Well, I'm sure if they ever open an Olympic event in brooding you'll sign him right up."

He smirked, staring off into the distance. After a few beats, he looked back at her. "Stefan's the one people like… The one all the girls fall in love with… The brother my dad wanted me to be more like… He was the good one."

Bonnie searched his face for any sign he was lying, but found none. "That must be hard… I mean, just because you think it's true doesn't mean it is, but… Growing up thinking everyone liked him better, that's gotta hurt the self-esteem."

"I try to make up for it in good looks and money."

Her mouth twitched. "And you're so _humble _too."

"Can't forget that…" He smiled. "What about you? Carebear's insecure about Elena, but are you? You ever feel like they've taken up all the spotlight?"

Bonnie's gaze fell to the fire for a long moment. "This is getting pretty deep for twenty questions…"

"What better way to learn all your deep, dark secrets?"

She bit her lip. "You always this open and invasive with strangers?"

"Just—"

"—the one you like," she finished knowingly. "Yeah."

Damon sat forward, staring at her profile. "Hey, if we're not close enough for these kinds of questions, we could just spend more time with each other until we are. How's tomorrow sound? Any plans? Are you booked this weekend? We can make a date of it. Play some board games, bare our souls, eat pork rinds dipped in sour cream."

She looked over at him, her brows hiked. "You like sour cream with your pork rinds?"

"I had a friend who had a weird taste for them. They grew on me. You know what else is good? _Pancakes_. With blueberries and whipped cream."

"I've always preferred waffles."

"Mm, see, that's going to have to change. I guarantee, once you've had one of my pancakes, you'll be a changed woman."

She shook her head, amused. "Is that a fact?"

He grinned at her. "It's a promise."

Her mouth opened then, to say what, he'd never find out.

A cry for help suddenly rang out, and they turned abruptly to see Elena and Jeremy carrying a bleeding Vicki Donovan toward a picnic table.

"Oh my God…" Bonnie leapt up from the log, her face marred with shock. She stepped forward to help, but a hand gripped her arm.

"Careful," Damon told her, his face suddenly very serious. "Don't know what hurt her, could be nearby…"

Bonnie nodded jerkily, but returned her gaze to the group. "They're my friends. I… I should see what I can do."

Damon's hand was tight on her arm, but he uncoiled his fingers slowly. "Sure. Uh… I'll go with you."

"No, you were right. We don't know what happened, or… what did it. You should find your brother and Caroline." She walked backward, her eyes still on him. "Or call him, at least. Maybe don't go into the woods on your own."

His mouth ticked up in a faint smile. "Worried about me, Bennett?"

She stared back at him a moment. "Maybe. A little."

He nodded. "I'll be careful."

With that, Bonnie turned on her heel, and cut through the crowd, already digging her phone out to call an ambulance.

"It's her neck," Elena said. "Something bit her. She's losing a lot of blood. It's bad."

Bonnie rubbed a hand back over her forehead as she watched Elena and Matt try to staunch the blood, Tyler and Jeremy crowding around them.

With the phone ringing in her ear, Bonnie turned her gaze out to the crowd, and found Stefan and Damon standing together.

Stefan turned to his brother, a voiceless gesture that seemed to say so much, and then, together, they turned and disappeared into the crowd.

Before she could ponder on it too much, the line picked up. "Hello? Hi, I—I need an ambulance There's been an accident. An animal attack, I think…"

* * *

**…**

* * *

"It wasn't me."

"I know it wasn't you," Stefan sighed. "You were with Bonnie." He paced his bedroom floor. "You know what this means…?"

"That we have another vampire on our hands?" He frowned. "It doesn't make sense. What are the odds that a vampire would attack Vicki Donovan on the same night I did, at the same place?"

Frowning, Stefan stared up at him. "What if it's a sign?"

Damon's mouth screwed up. "Of _what?_"

"That nothing can be changed… That all of this, everything that already happened, is set in stone… That no matter what we do, something will always right the course."

"Or maybe this time she actually _was _attacked by some hungry critter! Better yet, she was drunk, maybe she just tripped and fell and her neck happened to get sliced open by a wayward tree branch!" Damon threw his arms up. "I don't _know_. I do know that there's no way I'm throwing away this chance to make it right just because Vicki Donovan has two left feet and can't keep her neck away from something's _teeth_."

Stefan sighed. "Damon… We can't ignore this. We need to know what attacked her. And why."

Pressing the heels of his hands against his eyes, Damon groaned. "We are not going on a Scooby chase every time some human gets a papercut! I came back for one reason. To save _Bonnie_."

"Then do that! By finding out whatever dangerous creature attacked Vicki." Stefan stared at him, brows hiked in emphasis. "Whatever's out there, we don't know what it is. Which means that there's a new threat in town, one you're not prepared for because it wasn't here the first time around. Who's to say it doesn't attack Bonnie next? Huh? Or Caroline or Elena? And before you say something _stupid_, like you don't care about either of them, let me remind you that Bonnie _does_. Which means that even if you don't care, and I know you're lying if you say you don't, Bonnie will want to do anything she can to help them. So once again, it all leads back to her."

Grimacing, Damon knew he was right. He kicked at an errant box of books on the floor. "_Fine_. First thing tomorrow, we visit Vicki in the hospital and find out just what it was that attacked her. _All right?_"

Stefan sighed, looking relieved. "Yes. That's all I wanted."

"Saint Stefan," he muttered. "Always trying to be the hero."

Unperturbed, Stefan stared at him a long moment.

Annoyed, he snapped, "_What?_"

"You know… You pretend you don't like this kind of stuff, the mystery solving and fighting the bad guys, but… I saw in your head. You like being needed. You like being the one we can rely on."

Damon's cheek ticked. Standing, he moved toward the door. "Get some sleep, brother. We've got an injured girl to interrogate in the morning…"

Stefan hummed, choosing not to argue with him as he left.

* * *

**…**

* * *

Bonnie jumped as her phone buzzed, and looked down at the screen to see an unlisted phone number had sent her a text.

—_You get home all right?_—

Frowning, she took a quick look around the busy Grill and then returned her attention to her phone. _–Who is this?_— she typed out in reply.

A second passed before —_Your friendly neighborhood hot guy_— appeared on her phone screen.

Relaxing abruptly, she rolled her eyes. —_How did you get my number, Damon?_ —

—_Blondie was happy to share_—

She should have known.

Sighing, she glanced in Caroline's direction, finding her exactly where she'd last seen her, still standing at the bar, waiting on an order of fries. They were both spooked from the attack earlier and not quite ready to go back to their very empty homes.

—_I'm fine. And I'm not at home. Me and Caroline stopped at the Grill_—

—_For curiosity's sake, there's no suspiciously attractive people making eyes at Caroline are there?_—

Bonnie frowned. _—That was strangely specific. And no. Not currently. Why?_—

—_Just making sure. Can't be too safe_—

Bonnie shook her head. —_Yeah…. Anyway…_—

—_Do me a favor?_—

She paused, but slowly wrote back, —_Depends. What's the favor?_—

—_Always so suspicious. I like that about you. Just stay together. After that attack on Vicki Donovan, it's smarter for you to be with someone you know_—

—_Are forest animals making house calls now?_—

It was a joke, of course, but she couldn't deny she was shook up by what happened. It wasn't like she expected whatever rabid animal that attacked Vicki to be hiding in her closet back home. But staying with Caroline felt like the better option.

—_So it was an animal attack?_ —

Bonnie's brow furrowed. —_What else could it be?_—

Damon didn't reply right away, but when he did, he didn't answer her question. —_So you'll stay with Caroline?_—

She chewed on her lip, sitting back on her chair for a beat, before replying —_Yes. But not because you asked me to… because I want to_—

—_Whatever floats your boat, Bon-Bon_—

She rolled her eyes and snorted.

"What's funny?"

Looking up, she smiled as Caroline took a seat across from her. "Nothing. Hey, you think I could sleep over at your place? I feel weird going home after what happened…"

"God. _Yes! _I was just gonna follow you right to your bedroom and not leave until morning." She shrugged lightly.

Bonnie laughed. "That works too." Reaching over, she stole a fry. "We should get a to-go box. I want to get into my pajamas, curl up in bed, and just forget every detail of tonight."

Caroline hummed, but eyed her curiously. "_Every _detail…?"

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Please tell me you're not trying to bring up boy drama when Matt's sister is fighting for her life in the hospital."

"_Hey! _I'm trying to give us a _reasonable _distraction…" Caroline waved her fry at Bonnie. "Don't act like you don't want to talk about it."

"I don't."

"Puh-_lease_. You and Damon Salvatore have had some _weird _flirtation going on since the moment you met. And _don't _think I've forgotten that you two had a moment you didn't even _tell _me about!"

Bonnie shook her head. "It was nothing. It was just some strange… _thing_. It was like…" She turned her eyes away for a moment. "I don't know. I looked back and he was just… _there_, looking back at me. And for a second, it was like… Like I knew him."

Caroline stared at her, wide-eyed. "Bonnie Bennett! When did your life become a romance movie?"

With a scoff, Bonnie stole another fry. "Whatever. Let's just go already."

"Fine." Scooping up her fries, she walked to the front bar and asked if she could get a to-go box.

Grabbing up her bag, Bonnie hitched it over her shoulder and waited for Caroline to rejoin her, hooking her arm through hers. As they made their way to the door, she felt the weight of someone's stare piercing their backs, and turned her head back to search out the origins. But nobody stood out. Everybody was busy eating or talking, paying no mind to them. She frowned, hesitating a moment, thinking of that strange question Damon had asked. But then Caroline gave her arm a tug. "Hey? I thought we were leaving."

"Huh? Yeah, sorry. I… I thought I saw someone…"

"Okay." Caroline looked at her strangely. "You find them?"

Bonnie scanned the room one last time before shaking her head. "No… Nobody." She turned back around and pushed through the doors leading outside. "Just a weird feeling. Like déjà vu or something."

"Hm. _Weird_."

"Yeah."

* * *

**…**

* * *

Damon sat in his bed, legs crossed at the ankle, a glass of bourbon sitting atop his bedside table. In his lap was an open book, filled with empty, lined pages, and in his hand was a pen.

"Can't believe I'm doing this," he muttered under his breath, before reaching for his bourbon and taking a long drag.

The thing was, his memory could be spotty. For Stefan and Sheila, it was easy, they were able to magically see his every moment and the thoughts and feelings that went along with it. For him, it was a little less structured. Time eroded all things, and that included his memory of how certain things went. As the second time around continued, he imagined it would become muddled, what had happened versus what was happening. And, much as he wanted to change most of it, there were a few things that he wanted to remember just as they were. But, if he wanted to get to that point, he needed to start at the beginning.

And so, Damon wrote. He marked off each date in the corner of the page, with (1) written beside it to mark the original timeline. He wrote about the couple on the highway that he'd gorged himself on the night he'd arrived back in Mystic Falls. About tailing Stefan around town and spooking Elena off in the cemetery with the fog and the crow show. On his third day, he detailed his attack on Vicki in the woods outside of the party and the confrontation between him and his brother, marking the beginning of their power games.

He placed the pen inside the book, folded it closed, and tucked it inside the drawer of his bedside table. Tomorrow, he would add more to it. The more he remembered, the more he could change. And the more he could recognize what was somehow staying exactly the same, despite his lack of input.

Whoever, or whatever, was out there terrorizing the town in his stead would have to be put down. Damon had a witch to protect, and he had enough complications to deal with as it was.

Flipping his lamp off, he sunk down into his bed and rubbed his face down against his pillow.

He fell asleep dreaming of green eyes and a judgmentally upturned mouth.

[**continue**: chapter four]

* * *

**author's note**: _i had this story on the back-burner (it's still technically there), but i was inspired, so this happened. damon's snark is a ton of fun to write, honestly. also bonnie just being naturally combative with him, without even realizing why he pushes all of her buttons, is fun. _

_hope you enjoyed the chapter! please try to leave a review; they're my lifeblood._

**\- Lee | Fina**


	4. if a dream is a wish

**chapter rating**: teen/pg-13  
**word count**: 6,286

* * *

**_if a dream is a wish, what's a nightmare?_**

* * *

**iv.**

_"Believe it or not, Bonnie, I wanna protect you…" _

Bonnie startled awake. Sweat beaded on her forehead and a chill ran down her spine. Her dream was already hazy, fractured pictures and faces and words. But there was something – a stroke of his fingers over her hair and trailing down the side of her face. Familiar blue eyes and that voice…

She pressed a hand to her heart and willed it to slow down as she stared at the ceiling of her bedroom. It was just a dream. A really strange dream, sure. Or at least it felt that way. The details were so foggy. Something about a necklace… about someone… _Damon?_ needing it. She shook her head. This was just a manifestation of the weirdness that had happened at the Falls and with this strange connection she had to Damon Salvatore. Which wasn't even a connection at all, it was nothing. It was…

"What're you doing awake?" Caroline slurred, turning over and slinging an arm around Bonnie's waist. "Go to sleep, we've got school and cheer practice tomorrow."

Bonnie half-smiled at her best friend and rolled over onto her side. "Night, Care."

Caroline mumbled incoherently, face half-buried in her pillow.

Taking a deep breath, Bonnie closed her eyes, and hoped her dreams made more sense this time around.

* * *

**…**

* * *

Stefan stood at his bathroom mirror, staring at his reflection, dried blood caked to his face and arms. Scrapes and bruises marred his skin, but were slowly healing. He looked up as a long whistle echoed through the room and frowned when he found Damon leaning in the doorway.

"Do I need to host an intervention? Because I don't remember you falling off the wagon this early…"

"Funny," he muttered. "I didn't feed on anyone… I remembered that you attacked a few campers in the woods in the first timeline, I thought I'd go and see if they were okay. Maybe find out who's been terrorizing people."

"Well, don't keep me in suspense, brother. What'd you find?"

Stefan frowned, turning his eyes away briefly. "It was dark, hard to make out…"

Damon snorted. "You're a _vampire_. You have perfect vision."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Stefan shrugged. "Look, by the time I got there, the boyfriend was in the tree, and the girlfriend… She ran for the car, she was screaming, she tried to pull the door open, but it was locked. And then—"

"It unlocked." Damon rolled his eyes. "I like a little flair with dinner."

"But you weren't there, Damon. That's the point."

"Right, so who _was?_"

Taking a deep breath, Stefan shook his head. "I don't know. It— It happened so quickly. One minute she was standing there, the next there was this… _thing_. Black, shadowy, it just pounced, and… She was dead by the time I reached her. It was there and gone, like—"

"I'm sorry, are you trying to tell me that a _shadow creature _is in Mystic Falls? What is this place? _Halloweentown?_"

"I know how it sounds." He sighed. "But that's all I saw."

"So when you say shadowy… are we talking like Dementor-style or…?"

"I don't _know_." Frustrated, Stefan threw his hands up. "It— It was like _smoke_. It was just a black _thing_, like—like a _wraith_. It fell from the sky, tore her up, and was gone."

Damon frowned. "Well, what the hell does that mean? How the hell am I supposed to kill Kalabar 2.0?"

Rubbing his hands over his face, Stefan let out a long sigh. "I don't know. Just… Give me some time. We can talk to Sheila, see if she has an idea."

"Right. One of us goes to Sheila, the other finds out what Vicki Donovan saw in the woods." He nodded, rocking back on his heels. "Great. Problem solved." With that, he turned to leave.

Stefan stared after him a moment. "That's it? No more interrogation?"

"Nope. But maybe next time, wake me up. Can't let you play White Knight the _whole _time. I've got a rep to uphold."

With a snort, Stefan shook his head. "Right. I'll keep that in mind."

"And take a shower. If Zach sees you, he might have a heart attack, or call in the cavalry. And there's only one council member I'd mind killing…"

Humming, Stefan turned his gaze to the ceiling. As much as his brother had changed, he was still very much the same old Damon that he remembered.

* * *

**…**

* * *

Damon grinned flirtatiously at the nurse leading him down the hall to where Vicki Donovan was tucked away. His expression melted, however, when he spotted Jeremy leading a nearby room, looking distraught.

"Gilbert, right?"

The boy looked up and frowned at him. "Do I _know _you?"

"We have mutual friends." He pointed at him. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

He scoffed. "What're you, my _counselor_?" Stalking past him, Jeremy made his way down the hall, shoulders hunched and scowl in place.

Damon frowned after him, wondering if it would help or not to compel him early so he'd stop being such an emo little asshat… With a shrug, he turned back to the room, where the nurse was waiting, hugging a board to her chest and smiling at him.

"Thank you, Nurse…" He checked her tag. "_Becky_. I can take it from here."

"Are you sure?" She bit her lip suggestively. "I can hang around a few minutes if you want…"

He half-smiled, before catching her eyes and compelling her to leave, and forget she ever met him.

Her pupils widened and her face went blank for a second, before she stood up straight, muttered under her breath about rounds, and hurried off.

Damon slipped inside the hospital room and closed the door behind him gently.

Curled up on her side, Vicki Donovan hugged a pillow, fast asleep.

Making his way around the bed, he dragged a chair over and took a seat, tipping his head as he gave her a quick lookover. She had a bandage taped across her neck, just like he remembered. Her skin was pallid, brow damp with sweat, and her fingers were white-knuckling the pillow.

He lasted a few minutes before his impatience got the better of him. "Hey," he said, reaching over to poke her shoulder. Whistling, he stared down at her face, still slack with sleep. "C'mon, Sleeping Beauty, I don't have all day…"

Nose wrinkling, her mouth screwed up tight, and she let out a pained moan. Shifting in the bed, she shook her head a little, and squeezed her eyes closed.

"Listen, you can sleep all you want after you answer a few questions, all right…" He poked her shoulder again. "Wakey, wakey…"

Vicki blinked her eyes opened and cast them around sleepily. She frowned as she spotted Damon. "Who're you?"

He brightened. "So you don't recognize me? No flashbacks to fangs and blood and eerie fog…? Nothing."

"What?" She looked around, confused. "Where's Mattie?"

"I'm sure he's happy being average somewhere that isn't here. Listen, I need to ask you a few things… Like what attacked you last night."

She squinted at him, and shook her head slowly, reaching a hand up to cover the bandage on her neck. "Attacked…? I… It was…"

"Spit it out…"

"An animal, I… I think. I don't…" She blew a heavy breath out through her nose and started to panic, her eyes widening. "I don't know. I don't _know!_ I—I was alone. Ty was there, before. He—He was being an asshole and… But he left me there, that jerk. And then… Then the fog got so thick and the woods were so quiet and… This thing, it—it was dark. I couldn't make anything out. It was fast. I couldn't get away. I couldn't—"

"Shh, shh, shh, okay…" He patted her shoulder. "When you say it was _dark_, are we talking like… it was late at night, couldn't see anything, or like whatever attacked you was something out of a horror movie?"

"I…" Her brow knit. "It wasn't human. It wasn't… There wasn't a _body_. It was just—"

"A shadow." His mouth turned down.

"Yeah." She nodded, tears springing to her eyes. "What does that mean? Is it going to come back? Am I _safe?_" She curled her legs up to her chest, chewing at her lip and sniffling.

Damon sighed, and leaned forward. "All right… Hey, Vicki, look at me…" He caught her chin between his fingers. As her skitterish gaze met his, he took a deep breath, and she followed. "Last night, you were attacked by an animal. Sharp teeth, probably rabid. It sucks, but it happens. You're okay. You're not scared anymore."

"I'm okay," she repeated back. "I'm not scared anymore."

"Uh-huh. What attacked you? Do you remember?"

"An animal." Her mouth turned up faintly. "I mean, it sucks. It was probably rabid. _Whatever_. I'm fine."

Damon nodded. "Good girl." Dropping his hand from her chin, he stood. "All right, well, I'd send flowers, but, we never met, so... Take care." He moved to the door then, relieved to have the Donovan girl off his to-do list, but irritated that this shadow creature kept coming up. He hoped Stefan was having better luck with Sheila.

* * *

**…**

* * *

"I'm confused. Are you psychic or clairvoyant?" Caroline wondered, as they walked through the busy school halls.

"Technically, Grams says I'm a witch. My ancestors were these really cool Salem witch chicks or something. Grams tried to explain it all, but I don't know. She seemed kind of spooked when we were taking about it yesterday… Anyway, crazy family, yes. Witches? I don't think so."

"What does that mean though? Like, what do witches _do?_"

Bonnie shrugged. "I don't know. Cast spells, make love potions. _Whatever_. All I know is I did _not _get my letter to Hogwarts, so I don't think I'm getting a broom anytime soon."

Caroline laughed. "Well, personally, I think it could be good. Think about it! Maybe you could create a spell to make history class something other than _complete _torture."

"Would that be using my powers for good or evil?"

"Mmm… _neutral_, definitely."

* * *

**…**

* * *

Judging by the frown Sheila was sporting, she was not happy to see him. Stefan imagined that would become a norm for them.

"I see you didn't bring your worse half," she noted blandly. "Given the attack on the Donovan girl, and another out on the highway, I have a few _questions_." Leaving the safety of her house, she made her way to the chair sitting at the corner of her porch.

Stefan followed, taking a seat across from her. "It wasn't Damon."

Sheila laughed, a sharp, unconvinced huff. "And the fact that these attacks were the _exact _way they were in the first timeline…? Is that just _coincidence?_"

"Damon was with me when Vicki Donovan was attacked." Leaning forward in his seat, he rested his elbows on his knees and looked up at her beseechingly. "I have the same reservations that you do about all of this. I can believe a lot of things, mostly because I've seen them, but time travel… It's far-fetched, I know. But you performed the spell yourself. We saw his memories."

"Which is how I know that girl was attacked by your brother."

"_Originally_, yes. But this time, _no_. I was there when this thing attacked the campers on the highway. It isn't Damon. It— It's something else."

"Some_thing?_" she repeated, an eyebrow raised.

"It wasn't human or vampire or anything. It was like… a shadow. And Damon wants to crack jokes and pretend this isn't a big deal, but whatever is out there doing this, we need to stop it. He's hung up on keeping Bonnie safe, making things rights. Don't get me wrong, it's important. But what if Damon's trip back here caused some kind of… I don't know, some kind of tear in time. What if there were consequences to him being here?"

She sat up a little taller, turning her eyes away as she considered his words. "It takes a lot of power to send someone back as far as he's come. This Kai, the heretic that sent him here, he was on the edge of dying. For all we know, something went wrong while he was sending him. Something could have tagged along…"

"Tagged along? Like what? A spirit?"

"I don't know." She pursed her lips, and pushed up from her chair. "I have some research to do. I'll contact you when I find something."

"Wait." He stood too, shifting his feet uncomfortably. "I don't want to be dishonest with you. Not when I know what's on the line…"

She peered up at him and crossed her arms over her chest. "This have anything to do with your brother going out of his way to make friends with Bonnie?"

Stefan paused, but then nodded. "I know you wanted him to stay away from her…"

"Have either of you ever asked yourselves _why _the people you care about are always put at risk? Has it ever occurred to you that maybe it was in the best interest of everyone here that you _weren't _always around to play hero?" She shook her head. "Bennett witches have survived well enough on their own. But it seems when you vampires stick your noses into things, we have to put our necks out to fix them."

"We don't want to hurt Bonnie."

"Wanting and doing are different things, Stefan…" She stared up at him searchingly. "I put a lot of my wrath on Damon, because he was the perpetrator for far too much violence against my granddaughter. But don't think I forgot that you were there, tossing coins to see who would kill my daughter to save the doppelganger."

He swallowed tightly. "I—"

"_Stop_," she ordered.

And he listened.

"You and your brother are obsessive. You fall in _love _and suddenly nothing and no one matters as much as whoever you put on a pedestal. Well, I'm here to remind you that people fall off pedestals, right onto the bodies of _all _the victims that were sacrificed in the name of _'true love_.'" She shook her head. "You wanna do the right thing, Stefan. You wanna be a good person, worthy of Elena or Caroline or whomever. Then you best get yourself right with _you _first. Because I don't plan on dying for young, idealized love, and I don't plan on losing my granddaughter either. You want help getting rid of this shadow creature, I'll help you. You want help keeping Bonnie alive, I'll be the one leading the charge. But if, at any point, I think Bonnie isn't at the top of your priority list, I will personally put you in the ground myself. And you better believe, when I bury you, you won't be digging your way out."

Leaving him there to mull over her words, Sheila made her way back inside.

Stefan stood on the porch, sighing, and wondering if life would ever grant him just a little peace.

* * *

**…**

* * *

Bonnie was listening with half an ear as Caroline complained about something festival-committee related while they folded programs.

"_Ladies_…"

She looked up as a smirking Damon Salvatore pulled out a chair at their table and swung himself into it. "What exactly do you do with your days?" she wondered.

"Are you worried I'll get a boring nine-to-fiver and not have any time for you?" He leaned forward. "_Never_."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not _worried _about anything. It just seems like you have a lot of time on your hands."

"I'll have you now, my morning has been _very _busy. I volunteered at the hospital this morning, taking care of poor, sick, _lonely _people. It's rewarding work."

She snorted. "I'm sure…"

"Any chance you saw Elena there?" Caroline asked. "I think she said something about visiting Vicki or trying to help Matt with everything."

"Nope. I did see another Gilbert though. Perpetual scowl, terrible hair, giant chip on his shoulder… Ring any bells?"

"Jeremy." Bonnie frowned. "Be nice. He lost his parents last year. He's not doing so great."

"We can form a club then. Have group therapy sessions and braid each other's hair."

She paused, staring at him searchingly. "You lost your parents?"

Damon licked his lips, seeming to suddenly regret what he said. He looked away and then back to her, and shrugged. "Mom died first. Stefan was a mop-headed little kid at the time. Dad died later. We got over it."

She hummed. "Still. It's a pretty big thing. I mean, you're not that old."

His mouth ticked up. "Was that a compliment? Or are you fishing for details on my moisturizing routine?"

Sighing, she rolled her eyes. "And suddenly any sympathy I had just _dried _up."

"Who needs sympathy when we've got this great banter going?" He motioned between them. "We should hang out more. _Hey_, here's an idea. Who're you going to the festival with? _Hint_, I'm free."

Bonnie snorted. "Wow, so subtle. And while I'd just _jump _at the opportunity to go with you, I already told Caroline I'd help her hand out programs."

"So put 'em somewhere everyone can find them." Scooping up a flyer, he unfolded it and then pursed his lips. "What do they even need a program _for?_ It's a _comet_. They can walk around, eat their weight in cotton candy and caramel apples, and when it gets dark, _look_, there in the sky. A slow-moving chunk of ice."

"Clearly you _really _want to go to this festival." Bonnie sat back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm just _blown _away by your sincere interest in town events."

Caroline looked between them, her brows hiked. "Do you guys need some alone time or something? Because I can leave. There's a burger inside with my name on it."

"Yes," Damon said, just as Bonnie told her, "_No_."

With a grin, Damon turned to Caroline. "Question. If we get all these flyers handed out early, will you mind if I steal Bon-Bon for a little while? I'll trade you a broody little brother."

"_Hey_! You can't just negotiate my time with—"

"Done," Caroline interrupted. To Bonnie, she shrugged. "Stefan's cute, and whatever weird flirty thing you two have going, at least you're having fun."

"_Caroline_."

She smirked, and then pushed back from the table. "I wasn't kidding about that burger. I'll be back in a few. Try not to tear each other's clothes off out here. I don't need my mom arresting my friends."

As she walked off, Bonnie glared at her back, and then turned to Damon. "Caroline was dropped on her head as a child. Just because she agreed to trade me for Stefan doesn't actually mean I'll do it."

"What are you so afraid of, hm?" He rested his elbows on the table and leaned forward. "We have fun, don't we?"

"You are…" She shook her head. She wasn't even sure what word she wanted to use to describe him. Eventually, she settled on, "_Infuriating._"

Damon shrugged. "I prefer 'charming' or 'dashing' or 'undeniably attractive.'"

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Every once in a while, I start to think you're being genuine, and then you say something stupid."

"I'm hurt, Bon-Bon. I thought we were making progress here."

"See, _that_. What _is _that?"

He shrugged. "A genuine interest in being a pivotal part of your life."

She stared at him, her brow knit. "You're crazy, you know that? We hardly know each other, but sometimes you talk to me like…"

"Like I'm uniquely acquainted with a very special part of you that even _you_ don't know exists." He nodded. "It's a talent."

She huffed. "Whatever."

"All right, listen… I'll admit, sometimes I come on a little strong." He waved a hand around dismissively. "Is it really that shocking that I want to hang out with you? I'm new to town and sick of hanging out with Stefan. I see him all the time. He's old news. _You_, on the other hand, are fun."

"Fun?" She snorted. "All we do is this. We talk and snark and you… do _whatever _it is you're doing…"

"I'm going out of my way to be particularly friendly in the hopes that you want to hang out with me. C'mon, what's the worst that could happen?"

She stared at him, chewing her lip. "Why do you want to go to the festival anyway?"

"Don't I look like the type of person that spends a lot of time at community events? A real hands-on type that likes to _participate_."

"No, not even close. Mostly you look like a guy who spends a lot of time alone, drinking, and causing trouble."

"Maybe those things can co-exist. I don't know. Let's find out."

She laughed, eyeing him a moment. "All right. Let's say I _do _go to the festival with you… as a friend."

"As my future best-friend. I'll wager money on it right now."

Bonnie shook her head. "You're ridiculous." But she was smiling; she couldn't help it.

He grinned right back. "Not the worst thing I could be."

Before she could respond, Caroline returned to the table. "Well, you're not clawing each other's eyes out _or _making out on the flyers. I really thought it'd be either or…"

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Shut up. And help me fold the rest of these." She shoved a few more at Caroline, and then a whole stack at Damon. "Here's you chance to participate, Salvatore."

"At your service, Little Bird." He rubbed his hands together before grabbing up a piece of paper and beginning to fold it.

Bonnie was half-sure whatever they were doing together was a terrible idea, and half-very excited to see where it went anyway.

* * *

**…**

* * *

"Don't you think we should be putting our focus elsewhere? Like on this _thing _that's been picking off your previous victims?" Stefan poured himself and his brother a glass of bourbon, passing it off to him as he made his way to an arm chair.

"If this thing really is doing everything I used to do, then it'll be at the festival. Keeping an eye on you and Elena and then dragging Vicki Donovan up to the roof to inspire a little havoc. So, really, it's irresponsible of us _not _to go…"

"And telling Caroline that I would be her date?"

"I more or less suggested she could hang out with you if I could hang out with Bonnie. It's a win/win, brother. Don't act like you're not interested." Damon grinned at him. "Carebear is your '_even better than true love_,' remember?"

"I do." He nodded. "I also remember that our relationship reached that point because we spent a lot of time building a friendship first. Because we went through things, suffering and sacrifice and leaning on each other, and that's what made us so…" He sighed. "What I had with Caroline in your timeline, I'm not sure it can be replicated. Especially not if we're changing the history that led up to it."

"So speed it up. Start a friendship now, make different memories, kick-start the whole thing and let it play out."

"But that's the thing, Damon. I went through loving and losing Elena, sacrificing myself so you would live, becoming a Ripper again, dragging myself back from that edge, and struggling with some semblance of control. And Caroline was there, helping me through a lot of that. But if we do this, if we stop Katherine from turning Caroline and save Bonnie and Elena and all of them, then all of that is different. Who they become is not who they are right now. And if we take away what built them into those people, then they're not the same people they were when you knew them."

Damon ground his teeth. "So what're you trying to say?"

"I'm saying… everything we do, everything we change, it all builds up to one very important ending… We save them and we leave. We leave them to live out their lives in peace, _away _from us and everything we bring with us. They stay human and safe and they never have to suffer like they did in your time. They can have real lives where none of this affects them."

He stared down into his drink a long moment, and then let out a scoff. "You think I don't know that?"

Stefan frowned.

"In order for Bonnie and Elena and Caroline to have a good life, we can't be anywhere near it. I held Bonnie's dead body in my hands and the only thing going through my head is that it was my fault. _All _of it. Katherine, you, Bonnie, it all happened because I was selfish. I wanted what I wanted and I wasn't going to let anyone get in the way. And Kai, that psychopath, did me one favor. He let me try again. He let me fix _all _of it. Which means that at some point, when this screwed up little town is free of vampires, I'm going to have to say goodbye to my _best _friend, and hope that I did everything I could to give her the life she deserved, _far away _from me."

Stefan stared up at him. "Are you really sure you're prepared to do that?"

"I've done a lot of terrible, fucked up, _depraved _things in my life, Stefan. Things that would make your flippy little hero hair _curl_. I've been selfish every day of my undead life, and most of the time, I don't regret that. But the one thing I will not do is risk her life. If that means I don't get to be a part of it, then I can do that. But I will _not _leave until I know that every single hair on her witchy little head is safe. And until that day comes, I'm going to soak up every last second I have with her."

"And what if that never happens? What if, no matter what we do, there is always some new threat around the corner?"

"Then I'll get real cozy with playing hero." He lifted his glass in cheers. "I might just knock you out of the running and take the gold medal for myself."

* * *

**…**

* * *

The sun was setting when Bonnie swung the door open to find Elena on the porch, her hands tucked into the back pockets of her jeans.

"Hey." Her brow furrowed. "I thought you'd still be at the hospital."

"Yeah, well, it turns out Vicki's going to be released tomorrow."

"_Already?_" Bonnie's brows hiked in surprise. "Is it just me, or was she bleeding out on a picnic table like _yesterday_…?"

Elena blew out a sigh and shook her head. "It's not just you. I think it might be a little bit because of medical insurance. I don't know… I just know she's getting out and it felt kind of weird, hanging around the hospital room, not really talking about the elephant in the room." She swung her leg around, kicking at air. "Matt keeps looking at me like we might be inching our way back to each other and I don't know how to tell him that's not it. That I care about him and I want to be there for him, but I don't want to be _with_ him."

"It's gotta be hard. You and Matt were together for a while…" She crossed her arms over her stomach. "How are you doing?"

"I'm okay…" She shrugged. "Jenna's on this 'save Jeremy' kick… I want to be supportive. I want to help him through this and tell her it's going to be okay, but sometimes I just… really don't care. Is that awful?"

"I think it's normal. You're allowed to have bad days."

"Feels like it's been a bad _year_…" She smiled, but shook her head. "Anyway. Enough about me. What about you?"

"What _about _me?"

"Don't play coy, Bonnie Bennett." Elena grinned. "I've seen you and the new guy… What's his name? Damon Salvatore? At the Grill and the party the other night. He really seems to like you."

"Damon is…" She shook her head. "I don't know. He's weird."

"He's _hot_ and he only seems to have eyes for you. What's to get?"

Bonnie half-smiled. "It's just… It's strange. Sometimes when he's around, I feel like… Like I've known him for a lot longer than a couple days. It's like… I don't know. I can't explain it, but… Sometimes he looks at me and it's like he _sees _me. Not in a weird, cheesy, romance movie kind of way. But like he's looking right through me, like he knows what I'm thinking or what I'm going to say. It's just…"

"_Wow_."

"It's _frustrating_," she insisted. "Whenever I'm around him, I just start getting worked up. I can't help it. He brings out this side of me that's just—"

"Animalistic?"

Bonnie glared at her, but her mouth lifted up in a smile. "_Shut up_."

Elena held up her hands in surrender. "I'm just saying… I can't remember the last time a guy got to you like this."

"He hasn't _got _to me. He just…"

"Makes you feel things nobody else ever has?" Elena wiggled her eyebrows teasingly.

"Whatever." Bonnie shook her head. "Anyway, are you helping tomorrow? To hand out programs? Because I think Caroline's going to ditch me to hang out with Stefan."

"Stefan?" she repeated, curious. "That's Damon's brother, right? He was at the Grill the other night too?"

Bonnie paused, and suddenly felt like she was wading into dangerous territory. "Uh, yeah. Caroline's pretty into him."

"Oh. Cool." Elena nodded, and turned her gaze away. "Hey, are you hungry? I feel like I haven't eaten all day."

Smiling, Bonnie stepped back into the house and nodded for Elena to follow. "I've got a casserole in the oven, one of Grams' recipes."

Elena lit up. "_Yum_."

As they walked down the hall to kitchen, Bonnie hoped the impending boy drama was curbed for a while.

* * *

**…**

* * *

"Stefan?"

He looked up from his seat on her porch, and stood as she approached. "Hey."

"How did you know where I lived…?" she wondered.

"Uh, small town." He shrugged. "Sorry, to show up like this. I should've called or…"

"It's fine." She tipping her head and stared at him. "You look upset."

He looked away, gaze cast upward, toward a star-lit sky. He crossed his arms over his chest and cleared his throat. "You, uh, busy?"

"No, not really. I was just going to get a head start on my homework. Why? What's up?"

"You wanna take a walk? Maybe talk or… something." He smiled at her. "I just… I guess I just don't feel like being alone."

She stared at him a beat, and then nodded. "Sure. Just let me grab a jacket. It's getting a little cold out."

"Yeah, of course."

Walking past him, she made her way inside.

Stefan waited on the lawn, second-guessing himself with every passing second. What he'd said to Damon still held true. Eventually, they would have to leave, and whatever future he'd had with Caroline, whatever hopes the other him had put in having something with her, would have to be buried and forgotten. If they did things right, she would never turn, and a human and a vampire could never really last.

"Ready." Caroline joined him in the yard. She'd exchanged her dress for a pair of pants and a buttoned jacket. "So?" She hooked her arm through his. "What's on your mind?"

They left the yard and started down the sidewalk, their footsteps falling into sync.

Shaking his head, he told her, "It's just been a heavy few days…"

"I get that." She nodded. "So let's talk about something else. Something good. Like… music or books or movies or something…"

He glanced over at her. "How do you feel about 80's glam-metal?"

She side-eyed him curiously. "You want to be a little more specific?"

"Bon Jovi?"

She brightened. "Okay. Not the worst. I mean, they've had a few good hits…"

"A _few?_"

She laughed at his offended tone. "All right, _school _me on how great Bon Jovi is," she told him.

Stefan smothered a grin and decided to do just that.

* * *

**…**

* * *

"_Bonnie?" _

_"The one and only_."

His laughter rung in her ears as she woke up, sucking in air, a hand against her pounding heart.

Already the dream was beginning to slip away, the details out of focus. But she'd been in a kitchen, her hair was different, and she'd been standing across from—_Damon. _She'd leapt into his arms, hugging him like her life depended on it. The kind of desperation born of love and missing someone.

She could still feel his arms around her, his face buried at her shoulder, the rumbling of his chest, the way his fingers clutched at her back.

She blinked, trying to clear the fog from her head, but it only seemed to push the dream farther away. She didn't understand. What were all of these weird dreams about? Of all the ways she could dream about Damon, this was what her mind conjured up for her? A necklace and a hug? God, even in her dreams her life was boring.

Kicking her blanket off, she shifted off her bed and went in search of a glass of water. Her throat was so dry, it felt like sandpaper when she swallowed.

Padding downstairs, she didn't bother flipping the lights on. Taking a glass from the cupboard, she turned the sink tap on and filled it to the brim.

The clock on the coffee maker read 2:36 am and Bonnie whined in the back of her throat. Tomorrow was going to be busy with the festival. She wasn't exactly looking forward to it, but she wasn't dreading it either. Something full of anticipation was brewing in her stomach, and it took the shape of a particularly _annoying _Salvatore.

Gulping down the last of her water, Bonnie moved to place the cup in the sink. As she did, she looked out the window facing the side of the house. It was just shadows at first, shifting across the neighbor's house. But then, as if materializing out of nothing, there was a face. A little gaunt, stubble across the cheeks and chin, and patches of dried blood clinging to his skin.

A word. A name. It formed in her mind as blue eyes met hers.

And then she screamed.

The lights turned on abruptly, and Bonnie blinked as she found herself not in the kitchen back home, but in her room at her Grams' house. Sheila was standing in the doorway, eyes wide and hair wrapped.

"What is it? What's going on?"

Bonnie looked up at her, a frog in her throat, and then shook her head. "I- I'm sorry. It was a- a nightmare, I think." Tears were dripping down her cheeks steadily, but Bonnie hadn't noticed. "I- I don't know. It- It seemed so real. I was at home, I had a weird dream, and then… I was in the kitchen, there was this face, this man, he was outside the window. He- He looked right at me."

Sheila moved into the room and took a seat on the bed. She wrapped an arm around Bonnie's shoulders and pulled her into a hug. "It happens. Just ride it out. Catch your breath; it's okay, baby."

Bonnie clung to her, burying her face against Sheila's shoulder. "It felt _so _real, Grams…"

"I know, it's all right." She rubbed Bonnie's shoulder. "You're probably just stressed. It's your last year, you got a lot on your plate."

Bonnie nodded, but she didn't think that was it. It didn't feel like it. It felt different. Not even like a nightmare, but like a warning, or an omen… Or maybe just a message.

"Do you believe in premonitions?" she wondered.

It was a silly question to ask. Sheila taught occult. She lived and breathed the strange on a level that always made Bonnie's father uncomfortable. And, truth be told, it wasn't usually Bonnie's bag either. But she was sincere in her question. Because despite everything, despite a logical mind the said different, the dream felt like it was more than just a strange nightmare.

"You know I do," Sheila answered, and looked down at her curiously. "Is that what you think that was?"

"I don't know." She shook her head. "Probably not, but… I guess I just wondered if you'd ever had something like that happen. Where a dream felt so real, you almost can't believe it wasn't."

"Sure I have. Mind plays tricks on us sometimes, tests our limits, that sort of thing."

"No, it wasn't like that."

"What was it like then?"

"It felt like… Like it was trying to tell me something."

"What's that?"

_He's coming_.

Bonnie paused. "I don't know."

"Be honest with me now… What do you think it meant?"

She chewed her lip, and reached up to wipe at her cheeks. "When I was looking at him, he looked back. And for a second, I… I thought I knew him."

Sheila went still, but didn't say anything.

"I… I've never see him before; I know I haven't. But it was like my head thought different, like it knew something I didn't."

"Like what?"

"A name."

Sheila's voice was carefully neutral. "What name was that?"

Bonnie swallowed as a well of dread filled her throat.

"_Kai_."

* * *

**NOTE**: _dun dun duuun_.

_this chapter was supposed to jump into the comet festival, but i decided to move it to the next chapter and use this one to leave a few hints as to what's coming as we go along. :) hope you're enjoying this. please try to leave a review!_

-** Lee | Fina**


	5. what's an omen anyway?

**chapter rating**: pg-13**  
word count**: 6,060

* * *

**_what's an omen anyway?_**

* * *

**v.**

"We have a problem." Sheila walked into the Salvatore Boarding House without waiting for an invitation.

"Sure. Come on in. Wouldn't want to use our _manners _or anything…" Damon rolled his eyes as he swung the door closed and then followed Sheila into the parlour. Stefan was sitting on the couch, mulling over a few musty, old books. "Look alive, little brother, we've got company."

Stefan looked back over his shoulder, spotted Sheila, and stood. "Is something wrong?"

"A lot is wrong, beginning with the fact that I find myself trusting a pair of vampire brothers with this information." Sighing, Sheila walked to the drink cart and poured herself a bourbon, skipping the ice and downing the glass whole.

Stefan and Damon exchanged a look.

"That can't be good," Damon muttered.

Dropping the glass back to the cart with a clatter, Sheila turned to face them. "Bonnie had a nightmare…"

"Okay. So give her some warm milk at night, with a little splash of bourbon. Puts her out like a light." He snapped his fingers and grinned.

Damon was met with a noticeable lack of humor; he hated when that happened.

"It wasn't your average dream; it was a _premonition_… She said it felt like someone was sending her a message or a warning." Licking her lips, she let out a sigh. "There was a man. She said she'd never seen him before but somehow she recognized him."

Damon stiffened. "_Who?_"

Sheila stared at him a beat. "Kai."

"Impossible." He shook his head. "He was bleeding out. There's no way he survived."

"What if it's not the Kai from your future," Stefan suggested.

"The Kai from right now is stuck in a prison world. _No. _That little maniac is _dead_."

"But something's wrong, and you know it. Something is going around killing your original victims. How do we know, _really _know, that the timeline that Kai sent you back to is yours?"

"_What_?" Damon's face scrunched up in confusion. "What the hell does that mean?"

"We don't know how any of this time traveling stuff works. You trusted him to send you where you needed to go because you were grieving and desperate. But what if he sent you to somewhere else. A— A different timeline entirely."

"Or what if he just hitched along for the ride," Sheila suggested. "If Kai is strong enough for time magic, maybe he's pulling the strings on this whole thing. He could be behind the attacks, somehow."

"Kai is _dead_…" Damon paused. "He _has _to be."

"If he's not, then we need to find him before he hurts anyone else…" Stefan looked to Sheila. "Did Bonnie say anything else?"

"No. But she's scared."

Stefan nodded solemnly. "Look, we're still figuring out a lot of this stuff as we go, but I promise you, we're taking this seriously."

She pursed her lips and looked between them, but tipped her head. "Much as I don't want to say it, I know you two are supposed to be meeting the girls at the festival today and… I don't think it's the _worst _idea."

Damon smirked slowly. "No?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "Whatever is out there, whether it's Kai or something else, Bonnie is at risk. She's coming into her powers but she doesn't know what to do with them and she's not ready to face a world that's much stranger than she thinks. I may not like it, but at least I know you'll keep her safe." She waved a hand before Damon could speak. "Do not take this for absolute approval. Just as soon as we figure this all out, you can go back to keeping your distance."

"Not sure I've_ ever_ done that…"

"Then it's a new skill you can try." She smiled sharply and marched past him to the hall leading to the door. "I don't care if you think Kai's' dead, Damon. Bonnie saw him. We can't afford to ignore any omens."

With that, she left, and Damon was left to scowl after her. "Well, that soured my morning…" He looked to Stefan. "I'm hungry. A blood bag or two and then we should paint the town red… Metaphorically."

Distracted, Stefan nodded. "Yeah. Sure."

"C'mon… We're supposed to be meeting the girls at the Grill. We need to hand out flyers so I can steal Bonnie off for some bourbon and banter and you can play 'will they, won't they' with Carebear."

"She's seventeen, Damon, you can't give her bourbon."

"So are you and that's never stopped you from knocking off a bottle and singing Bon Jovi's greatest hits to all hours of the night."

Stefan rolled his eyes. "That's different." Gathering up his books, he started for the hallway. "I need to shower and then we'll go. That should give you some time to think of more age appropriate things to do with Bonnie."

"Fine. We'll braid each other's hair and share gossip," he snarked after him.

Stefan didn't bother answering and Damon walked off to the kitchen to dig out a few blood bags. Whistling to himself, he searched around for his favorite mug to warm it up in the microwave. A little blood and he hoped this day would get back on track, leaving behind the doom and gloom of Sheila's visit.

* * *

"Sorry I'm late." Elena hurried to catch up to them as Bonnie and Caroline walked down a path, handing out flyers to everyone they passed. "I was up late studying and I slept in."

"No worries. Lots left to hand out." Bonnie pulled a bunch of flyers from the bag hanging over her hip and handed them to her. "So studying, huh?"

"Yeah. I was serious about not wanting to get called out by Tanner again." She blew out a sigh and rolled her eyes. "It's weird. I feel like this used to come kind of easy to me and now I just… I don't know, I can't _focus_."

"It happens." Bonnie shrugged. "It just takes time. You'll get back into your routine."

"_Speaking _of routines…" Caroline looked over at them. "What are the chances you're coming back to cheerleading this year? Not to be a bitch, but we've got a few girls on stand-by and they want to know if they're going to be cheering this year or benching it."

"Cheerleading, right…" Elena bit her lip, but nodded. "Yeah, sure, I can do that. When's the next practice?"

"Tomorrow." Caroline looked at her seriously, her brows hiked. "So you'll be there? You're sure?"

Elena smiled, amused. "I'll be there, promise."

"Okay, good. 'Cause no offense to Becky but her backflip is _awful_."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "She broke her ankle last year; it still bugs her."

"Then she should join Band or something." Caroline passed a flyer off to someone without looking at them. "I'm not going to have sloppy cheering on my field."

"Work on my back-flips and don't break my ankles, gotcha." Elena's mouth tipped up in a smile.

"I'm just saying…" Caroline trailed off and stood a little straighter. Her face softened and a smile broke across her lips as she looked at something far ahead.

Bonnie turned to follow her gaze and found Damon and Stefan walking toward them.

Caroline ran a hand down the skirt of her yellow dress and rocked forward a little on her heels.

"See you got started without us," Damon said as they neared them. "Wasn't the deal that we help get these handed out early?"

Caroline handed her stack over to him. "Have at it." Turning, she hooked her arm through Stefan's. "Have you eaten? I'm starving."

He smiled down at her. "I could eat."

As they walked off, Damon fanned himself with his new flyers. "Bonnie," he greeted. "What are the chances I get to toss these and we go do something a little more _fun?_"

"Slim." She raised an eyebrow at him. "You're the one that bargained with Caroline."

"In my defense, I was hoping you'd have most of these handed out by the time I got here."

She snorted. "Well, we didn't. So you get to do your share." She walked past him and continued down the path, smiling politely at strangers as she handed them a flyer.

Damon caught up to her, and Elena lingered nearby, watching them curiously.

"What's the point in these things anyway? A rock is gonna slowly inch its way across the sky. Just look for the people pointing and you'll find it." Still, he handed some random guy a flyer as he passed him. "We could be bobbing for apples right now. Sharing cotton candy. I'll even get the blue kind, even though it'll turn my lips purple. Not an entirely flattering look on me, I gotta say."

She glanced back at him, brow furrowed. "The blue's my favorite."

"What a coincidence… Better reason to be doing that than this." He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows at her hopefully.

"_Or _we could hand these out and _then _get cotton candy." She marched ahead and, with a sigh, Damon followed.

"Your flirting needs a little work," Elena said.

Damon turned to her. "My what? My _flirting? _A) I'm offended. I'm great at flirting. It was my best class in school. And b) that was not flirting. That was healthy antagonism. It's a thing that we do. A thing we are very good at."

"Yeah? Because it mostly just looks like you're flirting..." She walked past him.

Damon pivoted and caught up to her. "Her flirting with me, that's a given. I'm _me_. But what makes you think I'm flirting with _her?_"

She rolled her eyes. "I have eyes. And ears. And you're not exactly subtle about it."

"Subtlety was never my forte." He stared at her a moment, gaze skittering over her face in search of… she had no idea. "Thanks for the heads up," he finally said, "I'll work on my technique." With a faint smile, he turned on his heel and jogged toward Bonnie, who had paused to talk to someone from their history class.

Elena stared after them a beat, watching as Damon slid a hand over Bonnie's shoulder and redirected her down the path, pointing, unsurprisingly, toward a cotton candy vendor in the distance.

With a blink, Elena looked down, and realized his stack of flyers were now sitting atop her own. What a _jerk_.

* * *

"Ugh. _Drama_." Caroline stirred the straw in her drink as she watched the awkward back and forth between Jeremy, Tyler, and Vicki across the room. Redirecting her attention to Stefan sitting across from her, she half-smiled. "So, what do you think the chances are that Bonnie and Damon are getting along?"

"Considering Damon thinks annoying her is fun, I'd say he's enjoying himself and she's looking for an escape route."

She laughed, and leaned forward to rest her arms on the table. "I don't know, it's kind of good for her. I mean, she says he annoys her but she still likes him. Not a lot of people can get Bonnie to react like that. It's weird. She's always been pretty mellow. Doesn't let things get to her."

"You've known Bonnie a while."

"Practically since birth. Our moms all knew each other. Well, back when Bonnie's mom was here…" She frowned. "Anyway, it's just been me, Bonnie, and Elena since forever… Actually it's more like me and Bonnie, and then Bonnie and Elena. Not that I don't _like _Elena, I do. It's just… I don't know. Sometimes we're friends and sometimes it feels more like we're pretending to be friends. Like we're keeping up appearances or something." She looked away for a moment and then shook her head. "God, ignore me, that was so emo."

He smiled gently. "I get it. Me and Damon have had… our differences. Sometimes there's no one more important and other days I think pushing him off a cliff would be a favor to humanity."

Caroline smiled. "You know I always kind of wanted a sibling. Maybe a sister. I used to tell my mom she should have one so I could dress her up and stuff, and mom just bought me a doll." She rolled her eyes lightly. "So I changed direction and now Bonnie lets me pick out her outfits… _Sometimes_. Sometimes she locks me out of her closet and tells me I'm on a fashion time-out."

"I can't say that's ever happened to me and Damon, but I don't think he's got much to work with."

"Yeah, he's a fan of the all-black wardrobe, huh?" Her nose scrunched up.

Stefan ducked his head as he chuckled. "He is."

"I think if he was my brother, I'd sneak and replace his clothes with something a little more colorful."

"I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

"So? Anything you wanna tell me? Some deep dark secret."

Bonnie raised an eyebrow. "What, you buy me cotton candy and I'm supposed to spill my guts. Mm-mm. That's reserved for a certain status of friendship, which you haven't yet reached." Plucking a fluffy blue piece off candy off, she tossed it in her mouth. "Why? What makes you think I have any secrets anyway?"

"Everybody has secrets. Especially in a small town like this." He batted a balloon out of his face as they walked past a crowd of kids. "And you, Bon-Bon, look like you didn't get much sleep last night. So I repeat, is there something you wanna talk about?"

She glanced up at him. "It's not a _secret_, I just had a bad night. Weird dreams."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Just weird stuff, like something out of some B-rated horror movie. Creepy guy in the window, that kind of thing."

Damon hummed. "Anybody you know?"

Her mouth screwed up. "No. I mean, not really…"

"What's 'not really'?"

"What are you, my therapist?"

"A concerned friend." He nudged her shoulder. "So. _Spill_."

Bonnie sighed. "I don't know. I looked at him and for a second it was like… I knew him. And… It was weird, it was like he was trying to tell me something, or _someone _was anyway."

"Yeah, what's that?"

_He's coming_.

Bonnie stiffened, her eyes staring forward, unfocused.

"Bon?" He touched her shoulder gently, and she startled.

"What?" She looked up at him, brows hiked. "Sorry. I… Like I said, I didn't get a great sleep. I'm jumpy, I guess."

"Yeah." He stared down at her searchingly. "Why don't we go sit down somewhere? Find a bench or something."

"No, don't worry about it. You didn't come out to just sit around on a bench. It's a festival, you should have fun."

"I will. On the bench. With you." Hand falling to the small of her back, he started directing her across the field.

Bonnie bit her lip and stared up at him out of the corner of her eyes.

He looked over at her. "What?"

"Nothing. Just… I can't tell if this is sweet or weird."

He smiled. "That's my shtick."

With a snort, she rolled her eyes.

* * *

Caroline blew out an irritated breath as her phone continued to beep for attention. "Sorry. I'm on the planning committee for the festival, so anytime something goes wrong, I get bombarded with texts." She paused as she looked at her phone, brow furrowed.

"Something serious?"

She glanced up at him and then back to her phone. "No. Just my mom… She's been a little clingy since Vicki was attacked. I'm officially banned from going into the woods, or anywhere dark, or talking to strangers." She huffed a laugh. "This is just like when I was twelve and she gave me a rape whistle and pepper spray on the first day of school."

"She cares."

"Yeah, depending on the day." She frowned, and turned her phone face down.

"You're not close with your mom?"

"I used to be. Kind of. When I was a kid. But then mom started working more. Her and my dad weren't doing so well so she decided if she wasn't around, then she didn't have to deal with it." She shrugged. "Anyway, he left last year, and she's been busier than ever. She's the Sheriff, so… Her job takes priority."

"Sounds hard. Balancing that kind of stuff. My, uh, my parents weren't great for each other either. Dad wasn't what you'd call 'father' material…" He pursed his lips and dropped his gaze to the table for a moment. "He wasn't much better after mother died."

"I'm sorry." Caroline's hand landed atop his arm. "I mean, I'm not always happy with my mom, but I still have her."

"Yeah." Stefan frowned down at the table for a moment.

"Are you okay?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorry, I was just… distracted." He shook his head. "Did you want to get out of here? Or maybe play a game of pool or something?"

"I'm up for some fresh air." She pushed her seat back to stand. "I know we just ate, but I've been _dying _for popcorn."

"We can share a bag."

She grinned. "Who said I wanted to share?"

* * *

"Will you stop?" Bonnie batted Damon's hand away from her forehead. "I don't have a temperature."

"You can never be too sure about these things." He offered her a bottle of cold water. "Maybe you're dehydrated."

"Or maybe I'm allergic to your mothering…" Still, she took the bottle and unscrewed the cap. After taking a long sip, she licked her lips. "Aren't you bored?"

"Because the rest of this festival was so exciting? Face it, everyone's just waiting for it to get dark so they can see the ice rock of doom."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, if you didn't care about the festival, why'd you come?"

"I thought that was obvious…" He rested an arm along the back of the bench. "I told you, Bon-Bon. You and me, we're going to be best friends."

She shook her head. "Anyone ever tell you that you come on a little strong?"

He grinned. "A few people. But I'll grow on you."

"Mm-hmm…" She raised an eyebrow, but eventually leaned back against the bench and tipped her head up to look at the sky.

"So, about that dream, with the creepy weirdo…"

"What about it?"

"Is that the first time you've dreamt about that guy? No other weird dreams…?"

Her brow furrowed, and then a flush filled her cheeks. She remembered another dream, not quite as clearly, but it'd been her and Damon and a hug. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and his mouth brushing her ear as he laughed. But she wasn't about to tell him that. She could just imagine how he might tease her.

"No. No other dreams."

"Sure?" He fingers brushed her cheek. "You're warming up."

"It's warm out," she defended.

"Maybe we should get out of the sun…"

"You are _such _a mother-hen!"

"If being concerned about your well-being is a _crime_—"

She turned her head toward him, and smiled. "You're ridiculous. And _dramatic!_"

"Am not." He screwed his face up with distaste, and Bonnie just laughed.

"Come on. I don't want to sit around here when we could be doing something." She stood from the bench and tucked the water bottle away in her purse.

"A minute ago, you were dizzy… Maybe you should slow down."

"Damon, I'm fine." She put her hands on her hips. "Weren't you the one telling me you wanted to have fun? Bobbing for apples, that's what you wanted to do, right?"

"I'm not much for participating, but I'll cheer you on."

Rolling her eyes, she walked away.

Damon was quick to catch up. "Fine. I'll bob for _one _apple…"

Her mouth kicked up, amused.

"And I bet I can get one before you."

"Since when is this a competition?"

"Since right now…" He smirked. "What? You don't think you can take me?"

She stared up at him through narrowed eyes. "You're on."

* * *

It was dark by the time Caroline and Stefan found Bonnie and Damon, seated on top of a picnic table, sharing a container of fries.

"Hey!" Caroline poked Bonnie's knee. "I've been texting you. I was starting to think Damon had pulled some elaborate stunt to kidnap you…"

"That's touching, really." Damon dusted his hands off of salt. "For the record, I wouldn't _need _an elaborate plan. She'd come willingly."

Bonnie rolled her eyes. "Where have you guys been?"

"Just walking around. There's a chalk art display over by the library. And Kelly Sutter put together this weird play; it's got puppets and she plays all the characters. I have _no _idea what's happening, but the kids love it."

"Huh. Hey, have you seen Elena? I haven't really seen her since we were handing out flyers."

"I think she's with Matt…" Caroline turned and scanned the crowd. "Yeah. There she is!" She pointed across the field to where Elena, Matt, and Tyler were standing together. "Stefan and I were going to grab candles. You want one?"

"I can come…"

"No, don't worry. We'll bring them over." Caroline waved it off and Bonnie shrugged.

Stefan turned to Caroline as they walked over to stand in line to get their candles. "So are we leaving Bonnie and Damon alone for a reason, or…?"

"People act differently when they have an audience. But when they don't think anyone's watching…" She turned to watch them, her head cocked curiously.

Stefan followed her gaze.

Bonnie and Damon were leaning against each other, shoulder to shoulder. He reached up and pressed the back of his hand to her forehead, but she slapped it away, and he laughed.

"They're cute, right?"

Stefan stared a beat longer. "Hm?"

"Come on. I know he's your brother, and he's a little weird, but you've gotta admit, him and Bonnie are cute together."

Stefan turned to her and smiled. "What are you doing after this?"

"After the comet?" She shook her head. "I don't know. Probably going home, since mom's being weird. What about you?"

"Same. But I was thinking, if you want company, maybe we could hang out… Watch a movie or just… talk some more."

She stared at him searchingly, and then nodded. "Sure. I'd like that."

* * *

Candle in hand, Bonnie watched as Stefan lit his own and then touched the wick to Caroline's. She, in turn, raised her candle for Bonnie to light hers. Damon reached over and lit his own without prompting and then leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs. "So what are the candles for, exactly?"

"They turned out a lot of the lamps so we can see the sky better. This way, you're not standing around in the dark."

"What's wrong with the dark?"

"Tripping hazards, mostly."

Damon shrugged and tipped his head back to look at the sky. "I'll catch you."

Bonnie turned to look at him. She stared at his profile a while, all pale skin and dark accessories. Except those eyes. Ridiculously blue and in contrast to everything else.

"You're staring." He glanced at her.

She redirected her gaze to the sky. "Don't flatter yourself. I was just thinking."

"About?"

"Comets."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah… You know, according to my Grams, the comet is a sign of impending doom. I guess the last time it passed over Mystic Falls there was lots of death. So much blood and carnage that it created a bed of paranormal activity."

Damon hummed. He turned to her, a brow raised curiously. "What do you think?"

"I… I used to think it was just a story. Nothing serious. I mean, anything paranormal is a little weird, right?"

"But…?"

She stared at him searchingly. "But sometimes I wonder… Something I think maybe it's not all just crack-pot theories."

"Hm…" He stared back at her, and she felt a warm feeling flood through her chest.

"Hey!"

Bonnie blinked, and turned her head to see Elena walking toward them. The moment, if she could even call it that, was gone, and Bonnie found herself wondering why she was disappointed.

* * *

Officially over the comet, the group moved inside the Grill, and Stefan took the opportunity to pull Damon aside. "You know what's about to happen, right?"

"Refresh my memory. I didn't get to a front row seat to the show. A lot's happened for me."

Stefan rolled his eyes. "You, me, Vicki Donovan, ringing any bells?"

"Right, I pulled an intense 'eat the girl or I'll let her reveal your immortal secret to the world' on the roof… Well, good thing I don't plan on going anywhere near the roof. Bonnie's getting tired. I figure I'll walk her home and then scope out her place, see if there's any sign Kai's been lurking around…" He shrugged. "I still don't believe he's alive, but he's a cockroach, so if anyone could survive, I guess it's him."

"Damon, we need to check this out/ You need to see this… _thing _for yourself."

"Right, this shadow creature you're worried about… That may or may not be Kai playing puppet master." He frowned. "How sure are we that's even going to happen?"

"Hey, has anyone seen Vicki?" Jeremy Gilbert marched toward the group all crowded around a table.

"You're her stalker, you tell us."

"I can't find her."

"She probably found someone else to party with." Tyler smirked humorlessly. "Sorry, pill pusher, I guess you've been replaced."

As the group descended into arguing, Stefan turned to Damon, his brows hiked.

"All right. Fine. We'll go to the roof…" He sighed, and turned on his heel.

"Hey." Bonnie stopped next to him. "Matt's sister Vicki is missing. We're gonna take a look around. Wanna come?"

"We'll probably find her quicker if we split up. Meet back here?"

"Sure."

He turned to leave, but paused. "Don't go home without me… It's late, and dark out."

She lifted a brow at him as she walked backwards. "You don't think I can take care of myself?"

"Just wait for me, Bonnie. _Please_?"

She sighed, but nodded. "Sure. We'll meet back here."

"Good." As Bonnie walked off, he turned to Stefan. "All right, let's go see what Kalabar has to say for himself."

"Do we need to talk about how familiar you are with Halloweentown?"

"It's a _classic!_"

* * *

Vicki was on the ground, crawling across the pavement, crying. "What's happening?"

The blackened shape of… _something_ floated near her feet. There was no distinguishable features, no arms or legs or face. It was like smoke.

"Okay… That's _weird_." Damon cocked his head, his brow furrowed. "What _is _it?" He crossed the roof slowly.

"Don't touch it," Stefan warned.

"What's it going to do?"

"It's killed people, Damon."

"Only people I already killed. _Technically_, I'm not on the hit list…"

"We don't know that." Huffing, Stefan followed after him. "Maybe we should just watch."

"And leave Vicki to fend for herself?"

"She's not in danger. Not physically, at least. And we can make her forget this ever happened."

"Listen to you. You know, you're getting a little 'the ends justify the means' on me here. I'm not sure I like it…"

"We need to know what this thing is if we want to destroy it."

"I know we can't _see _ears, but that doesn't mean it doesn't _have _any…"

Vicki rolled over and peered up at the black smoke. "What's happening?" She turned her head toward Damon and Stefan. "What the hell is that thing?"

Damon sauntered toward her, eyeing her curiously. "Humor me, when you look at the black smoke, you see…?"

"Black smoke!" She skittered back a few steps on her hands and feet. "Look, I don't know what it is or _how_, but it grabbed me in the bathroom and it… it brought me up here."

Damon hummed. "And that thing that attacked you in the woods… Can you tell me what that was?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

He rolled his eyes. "Just answer the question, will you?"

"It was an animal. I don't know. Not _this_."

He nodded, and looked to Stefan. "Well, the compulsion stuck."

"So? What's the plan?"

The smoke lunged forward then and pulled Vicki from the ground to stand her in front of Stefan and then drag her back a few steps. It caught her head and turned it up toward the smoke.

"H-Help me," she whispered shakily, turning her eyes toward Damon and Stefan. "_Please_!"

"Damon…" Stefan stepped forward, his expression hard.

"This was your idea, remember?"

The bandage was torn from Vicki's neck and blood spilled from the still open wounds. She was unceremoniously shoved to the side, and landed hard against Stefan's chest, crying as she knocked into him.

"Oh. Right." Damon walked over and gathered her away from Stefan. "Okay, take a few breaths. Your control is still a little wonky…" He released her, to stand off to the side, and focused on his brother. "Breathe through your mouth. Think about, I don't know, sunshine and rainbows, puppies and kittens, _Caroline_, whatever helps."

Stefan bent over, hands on his knees, and tried to shake off the all-consuming feeling of hunger that was running through him.

The smoke moved to Vicki once more, who gave a little cry of fright. But all it did was linger near her for a few seconds, and then it moved to the edge of the roof and disappeared over the side.

Damon followed it, but when he looked below, he couldn't see it anywhere. "Well, that didn't help us much, huh?" He turned back to Stefan, who seemed to be getting a hold of himself. "We've got a smoke monster on our hands, should we call the Ghostbusters or the Winchesters…?"

"It's not funny." Stefan leaned back, still catching his breath, and waved a hand toward Vicki. "You need to compel her to forget this happened. I'm not strong enough."

"Yeah, yeah…" Damon crossed the roof to Vicki, who was looking around with bright, wet eyes.

"What the fuck? What the _fuck?!_"

"All right, okay, calm down… Listen, everything is okay…"

* * *

"Hey!" Bonnie smiled as Damon made his way over to the table she was sitting at. "So apparently you're a hero."

"Me?" He shook his head as he sat down. "That's more Stefan's bag. He's the one that found Vicki wandering around out there. I just helped get her back here."

"Well, either way, it was nice of you. Vicki's pretty much all Matt has when it comes to family. She means a lot to him."

"Glad I could help then." He pointed to her half-empty glass of Coke. "You almost ready to head home or…?"

"Yeah. I'm good to go." She stood from her seat and smoothed out the fabric of her dress. "You know, I really don't need you to escort me home. I'll be fine."

"After the weird nightmares and the comet of doom?" He shook his head and held an elbow out for her to take.

"I thought you said you weren't the hero type?"

He grinned down at her. "I'll make an exception for you."

She rolled her eyes, but hooked her arm through his anyway. "Fine. But only because I'm still a little freaked out."

"About?"

"I don't know. Everything. The last few days have been weird. The attack in the woods, Vicki going missing, the weird dream… And then Grams and what she said about the comet. Honestly, it all just feels like one big omen."

He hummed as he led them out of the Grill. "So what happens if it is?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, how does Bonnie Bennett react to omens?"

She chewed her lip. "I don't know."

He nodded. "You want some advice?"

"Why?" She raised an eyebrow. "Have you got a lot of experience in this kind of thing?"

"Generally, if you've got a bad feeling, trust it. And then call me, and I'll fix it or kill it or whatever you want."

She laughed. "My own personal bodyguard, huh?"

Damon grinned. "The Costner to your Whitney."

* * *

"I don't know if we're at the sleepover stage in our friendship…" Caroline smiled as she leaned in the doorway of her house, looking up at him.

"I promise you, I will be on my best behaviour. I'll sleep on the floor or the couch or wherever you put me." Stefan held his hands up innocently. "And I'll keep my hands to myself the whole time."

"And you want to stay over _because_…?"

"Because you're all alone in this very big house and some weird things have been going on the last few days. You said it yourself, you're a little freaked out."

"Yeah, and so is my mom. I think if she comes home and finds out I let you stay over, she'd be _even _more freaked out."

"So we'll be very quiet and she'll never know I was here."

Caroline sighed. "I_ am_ still a little scared. Especially with Vicki wandering off like that, after everything that happened… So weird."

"We'll watch movies and talk."

"My choice?"

"Why do I get the feeling I'm going to be watching The Notebook?"

She laughed. "Now you definitely are."

He ducked his head as he smiled. "I admit defeat."

"All right. _Fine_…" She stepped back from the door. "Come on in."

Stefan looked up at her, and crossed the threshold into her house.

* * *

Bonnie took a seat on her bed and pulled the covers up into her lap as she dialed. He picked up on the first ring. "I'm only calling because I'm about to go to bed…"

"And you wanted me to listen to you breathe like some Edward Cullen reject?"

She rolled her eyes. "_No_. I wanted you to distract me. Give me something normal to think about so that when I fall asleep, I'm not going to have a nightmare."

"All right… What are you wearing?"

"_Damon!_"

"Pajamas, right? I bet you even have slippers on. With those big fluffy bunny heads and everything."

"I'm hanging up…"

"No, all right, I'll be good. What do you wanna talk about?"

"I don't know." She shuffled down her bed to lay on her back. "Tell me about you. About life before Mystic Falls. Just whatever will keep my head busy."

"So you want a bed time story?"

She smiled. "Yes. Preferably with a kick-ass girl that saves the world or something."

"All right, I've got one for you… You comfortable?"

She reached over to flick her lamp off. "Uh-huh."

"_Once upon a time, in a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, there lived a judgy little witch…_"

* * *

Stefan didn't sleep. While Caroline had passed out, curled up on her couch, he remained awake. _Watching_. In Damon's memories, he'd taken Caroline home, and they'd spent a good portion of the night hooking up, until Damon turned and decided to use her as an unwilling meal.

Convincing Caroline to sleep elsewhere hadn't worked, so Stefan's only option was to convince her to let him stay. He still had no idea what he was going to do if and when it attacked, but he had to do something. Leaving Caroline there to defend herself wasn't an option.

It was just after two in the morning when he felt it. An ominous chill in the air and the feeling that _something _wasn't right. Checking on Caroline once more, he found her still safely asleep on the couch, wrapped in a throw blanket. Quietly, he made his way to her bedroom. It was too dark to see anything, so he flicked on the light. There, hovering over the bed, was the same dark creature he'd seen twice before. Non-corporeal, but clearly on some kind of mission.

Only Caroline wasn't there for it to attack, and still it seemed adamant that it stay on the bed, re-enacting what Damon had done in the first timeline. So was it stuck in some kind of loop? Repeating the same actions, regardless of whether the victims were present or not? If so, that meant they had options, a way to circumvent the on-going attacks. As long as his victims were nowhere near the original attack site, they had a chance.

"What the _hell_ is that?"

Stefan startled, and looked to the left to see a wide-eyed Caroline staring at her bed.

That, would be a serious complication.

* * *

**tbc**

* * *

**note**: _honestly, the bamon banter in this story is so much fun to write. they just have such an amusing back and forth that i fall into every time. i'm actually really happy to have caroline figuring out something strange is going on early, just because i feel like her friendship with stefan takes off because they're able to be so honest with each other. _

_i know a number of you are curious about updates to other bamon and/or steroline stories. i promise you i'm working on them, and they'll get updated in time. :) _

_thank you all so much for reading! please try to leave a review!_  
\- **Lee | Fina**


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